• Source: List of customary units of measurement in South Asia

The origins of the customary units of measurement in South Asia are varied. As in Europe, there were various local systems of everyday measurements of length, mass and dry volume (the latter being a de facto measure of mass for many staple grains), while gold, pearls and gemstones were weighed on a different, slightly more standardized scale. Several of the more important units were cognate with units of measurement in the Arabian Peninsula to the West or in China to the East, to facilitate trade.
During the period of British India, these South Asian units cohabited with imperial units. Some South Asian customary units were redefined in terms of imperial Units by an Ordinance of 1833, and several gained sufficient currency among the colonial population to be listed in the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. An early attempt was made at metrication with the Indian Weights and Measures of Capacity Act, 1871, but this had still not been implemented in practice in 1922.
Full metrication with the passage of the Standards of Weights and Measures Act, 1956, now replaced by the Standards of Weights and Measures Act, 1976: these Acts quote the legal conversion factors for imperial units to SI units. Exact conversions can be made for customary units if they had previously been defined in terms of imperial units: however, even when legally defined, the value of a unit could vary between different localities.




Units of length


bahar
bamboo
girah
guz
hat'h
jow
sana lamjel
unglie
yojana
Krosha/ Kos (also as cosses in English writing)




Units of volume


chungah
maund
pau
seer
ser




Units of area


ankanam
bigha
cawnie
cent or decimal
ground
guntha
katha
kula
lessa
marabba




Units of mass


adowlie
bahar
buddam
candy
corgee
cullingey
garce
maund
masha
munjandie
passeree
ratti
seer
tank
tola




Units of dry volume


adowlie
cullishigay
garce
puddee




See also


Indian numbering system
Nepalese customary units of measurement




Further reading


Thomas, Edward (1874), Ancient Indian Weights, Trubner & Co., London




References


Sizes.com

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• Nepalese customary units of measurement
• List of customary units of measurement in South Asia
• List of obsolete units of measurement
• System of units of measurement
• Tinkathia System
• Katha (unit)
• Chinese units of measurement
• Korean units of measurement
• Seer (unit)
• Ground (unit)