UNITS AND MEASUREMENTS IN ANCIENT INDIA

 

As Mentioned in Chanakya Arthashastra

 Chanakya was the political mentor of the legendary  Indian monarch Chandragupta Maurya of 4^th century BC. He was a man learned in many disciplines and wrote the famous book arthashastra. In it, he mentioned two types if DHANUSHA, consisting of 96 ANGULAS, and the other dhanusha is mentioned as garhpatya dhanusha and consists of 108 angulas, used for measurement of roads and distances. Chanakya also mentions that a dhanurgraha consists of 4 angulas and a yojana consists of 8000 dhanushas.

Uniform units of length were used in planning of towns such as lothal, surkotada, kalibangan, dolavira, harrappa, and mohenjodaro. In the 1930-31 season at mohenjodaro, ernest mackay discovered a broken piece of shell bearing 8 divisions of 6.7056mm each, with a dot and a circle five graduations apart, which suggests a decimal system. However, attempts by mackay, to relate such a unit to attempts by mackay, to relate such a unit to the dimensions in mohenjodaro, were not very successful and thus were abandoned.

If we keep 10 divisions of the mohenjodaro scale to be equal to a dhanurgraha or 4 angulas, the precise length of an angula works out to be 16.764mm.

A dhanusha of 96 angulas=96*16.764mm=1.609344m

A dhanusha of 108 angulas=108*16.764mm=1.810512m

A yojana= 8000(dhanusha)*1.810512m=14.484096km

14.484096km=9miles (exactly!!).

1000 dhanusha of 96 angulas each=1 mile

Time units:

Time measurements from ancient India.

1 nimesha=time taken to pronounce a letter with one matra, time taken for twinkling of eyes

15 nimesha=1 kashta

30kashta=1kala

30kala=1 muhurta=2 nadika

1 nadika = 24 minutes

30 muhurta=1human day [day and night]

15 days = 1 paksha

30 days =2 paksha=1 maasa

6 maasa= 1 aayan

2 aayan= 12 months =1 human year

Timespan for brahma:

Kaliyug=432000 human years

Dwaparayuga=864000 human years

Tretayuga=1296000 human years

Kritayuga=1728000 human years

1 chaturyug=4320000000human years=

1000 charturyug = 1 day time/1 night time of brahma=1 mahayug

1 brahma full day =8640000000 human years

1 brahma month=30*8640000000=259200000000human years

1 brahma year= 12*259200000000=3110400000000human years= brahma’s age

1 brahma day =4 manvantar=1000chaturyug

1 manvantar=500/7 chaturyug=306720000human years[according to Vishnu purana 1.3]

Brahmas age =1 param =2 paradha=77760000000000 human years

1 kalpa=25years of brahma=77760000000000 human years

2 kalpa = 1 paradha =155520000000000human years

1 yaam=3 hours=15/2 nazika

5 nazika = usha

5/2 nazika= 1 pradosha

1 daytime/ night time = 30 nazhika

 UNITS OF LENGTH :

While initiating the process to test the ground for the suitability of building bhoja[1,8.67] stated:

||Karapramanam kurvita khatam tadbhumimadhyagam|| i.e one should dig a dug of dimension of one kara in middle of the ground

He then tends to standardize the magnitude of a kara as follows[1,9.4-5]

8renus=1valagra

8valagra=1 liksa

8liksa=1yuka

8yuka= 1yavamadhya

8,7or6 yavamadhyas = 1 angula

24 angulas = 1 kara

According to this 4096 renus make a yavamadhya. Consequently, the measurement pf a kara can be described as follows

1 prasaya= 24jyesthangulas=192 yavamadhyas=4096*192 renus=786432renus

1 saya = 24kanishtangulas=144 yavamadhyas=589824 renus

The length and dimensions of villages, towns, ciites, palaces, houses etc separating lines were measured in terms of prasaya

 Prayasa=45cm=450mm=786432renus

A renu , which was considered to be the least count for linear measurements is equivalent to 0.00057mm=0.000022inches approximately

MEASUREMENTS OF WEIGHTS:

6vamsyas=1marici

6maricis=1 sarsapa

6sarsapas=1yava

3yava=1 raktika

10raktika=1 masa

4 masas=1 sana

2sanas=1kola

2 kolas=1karsa

2 karsas=1 sukti

2 suktis = 1 pala

2 palas=1prasrti

2prasarti=1 anjali/kudava

2anjalis=1 sarava

2 sarava=1 prastha

4 prastha=1adhaka

4 adhakas=1 drona

2 dronas= 1surpa

2 surpas= 1 droni/vah

4 dronis= 1 khari=4096 pala

2000palas=1 bhara

 Hence, the development of measuring was determined. 😊