Nepalese customary units of measurement

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "Nepalese customary units of measurement" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

|

In Nepal, some customary units of measurement are still used, although the metric system has been the official standard since 1968.[1]

## Length

[edit]

The kos (kosh, krosh, koss) is a very ancient measure of distance, measuring about 2.25 miles or 3.7 kilometres.[2]

* 1 murii = approx. 0.75 inch
* 4 angul = 1 dharnugrah (bow grip) = 3 in
* 8 angul = 1 dhanurmushti (fist with thumb raised) = 6 in
* 12 angul = 1 vitastaa (span) = 9 in
* 2 vitastaa (cubit) = 18 in
* 1 haath = 1.5 ft.
* 1 dand or dhanush (bow) = 4 haath = 6 ft
* 2000 dand = 1 kos or Gorut = 4000 yards or 2.25 miles
* 4 kosh = 1 yojan = 9 mi = 14.48 km

## Land area

[edit]

In Nepal, two types of unit systems are used for land area measurements. In hilly regions, ropani-aana-paisa-daam units are used while in terai regions, bigha-kattha-dhur units measurements are used. We may need to convert land area units such as aana to dhur, dhur to aana, kattha to aana, ropani to bigha, square meter to aana, square meter to dhur etc, For such area units conversion you may use Area Converter Calculator.[3]

The precise land measurement conversions as per Nepal standard are as follows:

Units | khetmuri  | bigha  | kattha  | dhur  | ropani  | aana  | paisa  | dam  | sq.feet  | sq.meter

|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|

khetmuri  | 1 | 1.877914952  | 37.55829904  | 751.1659808  | 25  | 400  | 1600  | 6400  | 136900  | 12718.42618
bigha  | 0.532505478  | 1 | 20  | 400  | 13.31263696  | 213.0021914  | 852.0087655  | 3408.035062  | 72900  | 6772.631616
kattha  | 0.026625274  | 0.05  | 1 | 20  | 0.665631848  | 10.65010957  | 42.60043828  | 170.4017531  | 3645  | 338.6315808
dhur  | 0.001331264  | 0.0025  | 0.05  | 1 | 0.033281592  | 0.532505478  | 2.130021914  | 8.520087655  | 182.25  | 16.93157904
ropani  | 0.04  | 0.075116598  | 1.502331962  | 30.04663923  | 1 | 16  | 64  | 256  | 5476  | 508.737047
aana  | 0.0025  | 0.004694787  | 0.093895748  | 1.877914952  | 0.0625  | 1 | 4  | 16  | 342.25  | 31.79606544
paisa  | 0.000625  | 0.001173697  | 0.023473937  | 0.469478738  | 0.015625  | 0.25  | 1 | 4  | 85.5625  | 7.94901636
dam  | 0.00015625  | 0.000293424  | 0.005868484  | 0.117369684  | 0.00390625  | 0.0625  | 0.25  | 1 | 21.390625  | 1.98725409
sq. feet  | 7.3046E-06  | 1.37174E-05  | 0.000274348  | 0.005486968  | 0.000182615  | 0.002921841  | 0.011687363  | 0.046749452  | 1 | 0.09290304
sq. meter  | 7.86261E-05  | 0.000147653  | 0.002953062  | 0.059061237  | 0.001965652  | 0.031450432  | 0.125801729  | 0.503206915  | 10.76391042  | 1

In a nutshell, The following is a partial list of everyday units used to calculate land area in Nepal.[4][5]

* 1 Khetmuri = 25 Ropani
* 1 Bigha (बिघा) = 20 Kattha (कठ्ठा) = 6772.63 m2 = 72900 sq.ft. = 13.31 Ropani
* 1 Katha (कठ्ठा) = 20 Dhur (धुर) = 338.63 m2 = 3645 sq.ft.
* 1 Dhur (धुर) = 16.93 m2 = 182.25 sq.ft.
* 1 Ropani (रोपनी) = 16 Aana (आना) = 64 Paisa (पैसा) = 508.72 m2 = 5476 sq.ft. = 256 Daam (दाम) = 4 llka[6]
* 1 Aana (आना)= 4 Paisa (पैसा) = 31.80 m2 = 342.25 sq. ft. = 16 Daam (दाम)
* 1 Paisa (पैसा) = 4 Daam (दाम) = 7.95 m2 = 85.56 sq. ft.
* 1 Daam (दाम) = 1.99 m2 = 21.39 sq. ft.

The units of measurement of area of land depends on the part of the country where they are being used, with the Bigha-Katha-Dhur measurements common in the Terai region while the Ropani-Aana measurements are common in hilly and mountainous regions.

Terai region

In the Terai region, the southern parts of Nepal, the customary units are those used elsewhere in South Asia:

* 1 katha = 20 dhur
* 1 bigha = 20 katha

Hilly and mountainous regions

A different system is used in hilly regions:

* 1 paisa = 4 dam (daam) [7]
* 1 ana (aana) = 4 paisa[2]
* 1 ropani = 16 ana

Conversions

* 1 ropani = 74 feet × 74 feet
* 1 bigha = 13 Ropani 5 Anna
* 1 kattha = 442 square yards or 338 square meters[8]

## Volume

[edit]

* 10 Mutthi (fistful) = 1 Mana
* 8 Mana = 1 Pathi (4.54596L)[9]
* 20 Pathi = 1 Muri

## See also

[edit]

* List of customary units of measurement in South Asia

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Standard Measurement and Weight Act, 1968". Kingdom of Nepal. 25 October 1968. Archived from the original on 13 March 2015. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
2. ^ a b "Some Land and Distance Measurement Units used in Nepal". Blog "for Nepalese Civil Engineers". 6 January 2011. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 20 December 2012.[better source needed]
3. ^ "Area Converter Nepal". Aafnai Ghar. November 2, 2024.
4. ^ "Land measurement units in Nepal" Archived 2014-11-25 at the Wayback Machine October, 2014[better source needed]
5. ^ "Units of Area Calculation in Nepal, Ropani Anna ana Converter Square Feet sq. ft area land units Converter loan emi calculator". www.housingnepal.com. Archived from the original on 2017-02-14. Retrieved 2017-02-13.
6. ^ Admin. "Ropani to Square Feet | Ropani to Kattha | Ropani to Aana in Nepal". Archived from the original on 2019-08-13. Retrieved 2019-08-13.
7. ^ "Convert Paisa to Dam (paisa to Nepalese dam)". Change Unit. Retrieved 2025-07-25.
8. ^ Russ Rowlett (2008). "K". A Dictionary of Units of Measurement. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Archived from the original on 16 November 2011. Retrieved 20 December 2012.
9. ^ "Standard Measurement and Weight Act, 2025 (1968)" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2022-05-21.

## External links

[edit]

* Nepali Land-Converter
* Area Converter Nepal

* v
* t
* e

Systems of measurement

Current|

| General|

* International System of Units (SI)
* UK imperial system
* US customary units (USCS/USC)
* Chinese
* Hong Kong

|

Specific|

* Apothecaries'
* Avoirdupois
* Troy
* Astronomical
* Electrical
* English Engineering Units (US)

Natural|

* Atomic
* Geometrised
* Heaviside–Lorentz
* Planck
* Quantum chromodynamical
* Stoney

Background|

| Metric|

* Overview
* Outline
* History
* Metrication

|

UK/US|

* Overview
* Comparison
* Foot–pound–second (FPS)

Historic|

| Metric|

* metre–kilogram–second (MKS)
* metre–tonne–second (MTS)
* centimetre–gram–second (CGS)
* gravitational

|

Europe|

* Cornish
* Cypriot
* Czech
* Danish
* Dutch
* English
* Winchester
* Exchequer
* Estonian
* Finnish
* French
* Traditional
* Mesures usuelles
* German
* Greek
* Byzantine
* Hungarian
* Icelandic
* Irish
* Italian
* Latvian
* Luxembourgian
* Maltese
* Norwegian
* Ottoman
* Polish
* Portuguese
* Romanian
* Russian
* Scottish
* Serbian
* Slovak
* Spanish
* Swedish
* Swiss
* Welsh

Asia|

* Afghan
* Cambodian
* Indian
* Indonesian
* Japanese
* Korean
* Mongolian
* Myanmar
* Nepalese
* Omani
* Pakistani
* Philippine
* Pegu
* Singaporean
* Sri Lankan
* Syrian
* Taiwanese
* Tatar
* Thai
* Vietnamese

Africa|

* Algerian
* Ethiopian
* Egyptian
* Eritrean
* Guinean
* Libyan
* Malagasy
* Mauritian
* Moroccan
* Seychellois
* Somali
* South African
* Tunisian
* Tanzanian

North and Central
America|

* Costa Rican
* Cuban
* Haitian
* Honduran
* Mexican
* Nicaraguan
* Puerto Rican

South America|

* Argentine
* Bolivian
* Brazilian
* Chilean
* Colombian
* Paraguayan
* Peruvian
* Uruguayan
* Venezuelan

Ancient|

* Arabic
* Biblical and Talmudic
* Egyptian
* Greek
* Hindu
* Indian
* Mesopotamian
* Persian
* Roman

List articles|

* Humorous
* Obsolete
* Unusual

Other|

* Absolute scale
* N-body
* Modulor

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template