Every Indian Unit. Every State. Instantly Converted.
Bigha, Acre, Katha, Gaj, Marla
India has more land unit variations than any other country. Bigha alone has eight different values — from 6,804 sq ft in Uttarakhand to 27,225 sq ft in Bihar. Our land calculators use state-specific conversion factors sourced from official revenue department standards.
Tola, Sovereign, Gram, Carat, Bhori
Indian jewellery markets use tola in the north, sovereign (pavan) in the south, and bhori in Bengal. Since mandatory BIS hallmarking in 2021, gram has become the legal standard on certificates — but traditional units remain in daily use for pricing and negotiation.
Cup, Katori, Pav, Seer, Tablespoon
Indian recipes mix metric grams with traditional seer, pav, katori, and cup measures. The BIS standard cup is 240 ml, the katori is 150 ml, and a tablespoon is 15 ml — but actual kitchen vessels vary. Our tables cover dry ingredient weights by cup for atta, rice, and sugar.
Gaz, Meter, Yard, Inch
Indian fabric markets quote in gaz (36 inches), while export documentation uses meters or yards. Pattern books from Europe use centimeters; American patterns use inches. Knowing the exact relationship between gaz, meter, and yard prevents expensive cutting errors.
CFT, Brass, Cubic Meter, Cement Bag
Construction procurement in India is still quoted in brass (100 CFT) for sand and aggregate, while structural engineers work in cubic meters. CPWD rates list both. Our calculators cover CFT, brass, cubic meter, and bag equivalents used in RCC, masonry, and finishing work.
Metric, Imperial, CGS, SI
Everyday measurements — height in cm or feet, weight in kg or pounds, temperature in Celsius or Fahrenheit, distance in km or miles. India officially uses SI units under the Legal Metrology Act 2009, but imperial units remain common in signage, everyday speech, and older equipment.
India does not have one measurement system — it has dozens, layered on top of each other by geography, history, and trade. Understanding why requires a short journey through Indian administrative history.
Before British rule, measurement varied by kingdom and commodity. A dhur in one province was different from a dhur two districts away. The Mughal emperor Akbar made the first serious attempt at standardisation through the Ain-i-Akbari, using the ilahi gaz (about 33 inches) as a reference length and defining agricultural land in terms of the bigha. But even Akbar's system had regional adaptations.
The British colonial administration introduced systematic survey measurement through the Survey of India (established formally in 1802). Revenue settlements in each province froze whatever local units were in use at that moment into law. Punjab got marla and kanal. Bengal got bigha and katha. Tamil Nadu got cent and ground. Those units persisted through independence and remain embedded in state revenue law today.
Post-independence India adopted the metric system under the Standards of Weights and Measures Act 1976, making SI units mandatory for commerce and official documentation. But the legal mandate did not erase 300 years of embedded practice. Land revenue records, jewellery markets, and construction sites still run on traditional units — and so do the competitive exams that test whether candidates understand the country they are administering.
India is formally metric. The Legal Metrology Act 2009 (which replaced the 1976 Act) makes it an offence to use non-metric units in commercial transactions — except where the Central Government has granted exemptions. Those exemptions cover certain traditional units that remain in official use.
In practice, the transition is uneven. Urban real estate uses square feet widely despite RERA requiring carpet area disclosure in square meters. Jewellery is sold in tola and sovereign by weight even though BIS hallmarking certificates show grams. Construction bills mix CFT and cubic meter in the same document. A competent professional in any of these fields needs to move fluently between systems.
The variation that confuses people most is in land measurement. The same unit name can mean different things across states. Bigha is the most dramatic example — the area it represents ranges from 6,804 sq ft in Uttarakhand to 27,225 sq ft in Bihar, a difference of roughly 4:1. Buying land without knowing which bigha is being referenced is a serious legal and financial risk.
Our state-specific calculators use conversion factors sourced from official state revenue department publications and BIS standards. Where official values differ from commonly used trade values, we document both.
Each Indian state uses a distinct set of local measurement units in land records, regulated markets, and everyday commerce. Select your state for state-specific converters.
The acre and hectare are the internationally recognised land area units used in Indian government documents. One acre equals 43,560 square feet or 0.4047 hectares. RERA requires all project area disclosures in square meters (1 sq m = 10.764 sq ft).
Traditional units still used in revenue records include bigha (state-specific), katha (used in Bihar, Bengal, Assam, Jharkhand), marla and kanal (Punjab and Haryana), cent and ground (Tamil Nadu and Kerala), ankanam and kuncham (Andhra Pradesh and Telangana), and gunta/guntha (Karnataka and Maharashtra). Each has a fixed sq ft equivalent within its state.
The tola is 11.6638 grams — this is the most important number in the Indian gold market. All tola-based pricing, from Mumbai's Zaveri Bazaar to Rajasthan's village jewellers, uses this exact value. The sovereign (also called pavan in South India) is standardised at 8 grams for trade purposes, though some older references use 7.98 grams.
Since June 2021, BIS mandatory hallmarking covers all gold jewellery sold in India. The 6-digit HUID code on each piece links it to the assaying centre that verified purity. This means gold weight and purity are now officially documented in grams and karat for every hallmarked piece.
The Indian kitchen uses both volume and weight. Volume: 1 tablespoon = 15 ml, 1 teaspoon = 5 ml, 1 cup = 240 ml (BIS standard), 1 katori = 150 ml (common standard, though katori sizes vary). Weight conversions for dry ingredients: 1 cup of atta is about 120 grams, rice is 200 grams, and sugar is 200 grams. These are density-dependent and differ from the volume-equivalent ml values.
The gaz (also spelled gaj) equals one yard — 36 inches or 0.9144 meters. Indian fabric markets price by the meter or gaz depending on region. Export documentation uses meters for EU destinations and yards for the US market. Understanding the relationship (1 meter = 1.0936 gaz) prevents expensive fabric order errors.
One brass equals 100 cubic feet (CFT), which is 2.832 cubic meters. This is the dominant unit for bulk material procurement at Indian construction sites. Cement bags are conventionally taken as 50 kg each, which provides approximately 1.226 CFT of loose volume. Structural design works in cubic meters; site procurement works in brass and CFT. BOQ documents frequently need both.
Conversion factors are cross-referenced against BIS publications, state revenue department handbooks, RERA guidelines, and CPWD/PWD schedule of rates documents — not secondary websites.
Regional units like bigha, katha, and biswa use state-specific values. We document which state each value applies to and flag where official values differ from trade practice.
We monitor BIS standard revisions, RERA amendments, and state government land record notifications. Pages are updated when official values change.
If you spot a discrepancy between our values and an official source, use the Contact page. We investigate every reported discrepancy against the primary document.
Measurement conversions appear across the Indian educational curriculum and competitive examination system in ways that often trip up candidates who have not practised with real-world Indian units.
CBSE Classes 6–8 cover metric unit conversion in Mathematics and Science. The focus is on the SI system — meter, kilogram, litre — with conversion between metric prefixes (kilo, centi, milli). Traditional Indian units are not part of the NCERT curriculum but appear in state board textbooks for several states, particularly in social science chapters covering agriculture and revenue systems.
For competitive examinations, the coverage is much broader. UPSC Civil Services examinations test measurement awareness in Geography, Science and Technology, and General Studies papers. Revenue inspector and Patwari exams at the state level require detailed knowledge of local land units and their conversions. Banking examinations (IBPS PO, SBI PO, RBI Grade B) include quantitative aptitude questions built around unit conversion, often using traditional Indian units to add complexity.
SSC CGL and CHSL examinations regularly feature measurement conversion in the quantitative aptitude section. The pattern is typically multi-step conversions involving two or three unit systems, testing both knowledge of the conversion factor and the ability to apply it correctly in word problems.
Our exam-ready reference tables are designed to help candidates memorise key factors efficiently: the base sq ft values for each major land unit, the gram equivalent for gold units, and the standard relationships between metric and imperial measures that appear most frequently in exam papers.
Real estate is where measurement errors have the most immediate financial consequences. A square-foot error in a 2,000 sq ft apartment valued at ₹80 lakh translates to ₹4,000 per square foot — errors of even 50 sq ft mean ₹2 lakh in wrong payments.
RERA (Real Estate Regulation and Development Act 2016) defines carpet area, built-up area, and super built-up area with specific measurement standards. Carpet area — the area within inner walls, excluding balconies, terraces, and common areas — must be disclosed in square meters for all RERA-registered projects. Buyers who understand this can verify whether the area a developer quotes matches the carpet area on the RERA certificate.
In agricultural land transactions, the risk comes from regional unit variations. A Rajasthan bigha sale deed describing "5 bigha" means 1,36,125 sq ft. If the buyer, from Bihar, interprets this as Bihar bigha, they calculate only 1,36,125 ÷ 27225 × 27225 sq ft — which happens to match, but a West Bengal buyer would calculate 5 × 14,400 = 72,000 sq ft and overpay by nearly 89%. This is not a hypothetical — land disputes from unit misinterpretation appear in Indian court records.
Our state-specific land calculators include the official sq ft value for each state's version of contested units, with source documentation. Use them alongside any property's official sale deed and survey record for complete verification.