Sri Lankan units of measurement
A number of different units of measurement were used in Sri Lanka to measure quantities like length, mass and capacity.[1] Under the British Empire, imperial units became the official units of measurement[2] and remained so until Sri Lanka adopted the metric system in the 1970s.[3][4]
Traditional units
Various units were used in Sri Lanka at different times and some only in certain regions. Some of these remained in use well into the colonial period.[1][5] The following is only a partial list.
Length
One covid was equal to 0.464 m (18.5 in[2]).[1] The bamba, still in use in 2010, is the distance between a man's outstretched arms. Units used in measuring road distances included the gavva and yoduna (plurals gavu and yojana - a yoduna was 4 gavu) and the hoo kiyana dura.[5]
Area was often measured in terms of the land that could be sown with a specific amount of seed or rice, including the pala, amuna (4 pala) and kiriya (4 amunas) and the riyana. In one region, a kiriya was about 8 acres.[5]
Prinsep, writing in 1840, states that "at ... Ceylon ... English measures only are used, or at least a cubit based on the English measure of 18 inches."[6]:96
Weight
One candy or one bahar was equal to 226.8 kg,[1] or 500 lbs,[6]:86 or according to The Indian Trader's Guide 480 Dutch pounds or 520 pounds Avoirdupois.[7]
Small weights could be measured in seeds, such as the tala, amu, vee ata (3 amu), madati (8 vee ata), majadi, maditi, kalanda and manjadi.[5]
Capacity
Different units were used for liquid and dry capacity.[2]
Liquid
One seer was equal to 1.2 quarts and one parrah was equal to 6.75 gallons.[2]
Another source suggests that a seer was equal to 1.86 imperial pints or 1.06 litres. [8]
Dry
One ammonam was equal to 203.4 l. Some other units are provided below:[1]
1 parrah = 1/8 ammonam
1 seer = 1/288 ammonam.
The chundoo was equal to nearly half a pint.[2]
Maccauly stated in 1818 that to the north of Colombo an Ammonam contained 16 Parahs, and 2.5 Ammonams equalled one Acre, but that to the south there were 8 Parahs to the Ammonam. He describes the Parah as a measure 16.7 inches wide and 5.6 inches deep.[7]
Montgomery, writing in 1835, describes the interior measurement of a Parrah as a perfect cube of 11.571 inches, and the seer as a cylinder of depth 4.35 inches and diameter 4.35 inches.[9]
References
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