The history of measurement systems in India begins in early Indus Valley Civilization with the earliest surviving samples dated to the 5th millennium BCE. Since early times the adoption of standard weights and measures has reflected in the country's architectural, folk, and metallurgical artifacts. A complex system of weights and measures was adopted by the Maurya empire (322–185 BCE), which also formulated regulations for the usage of this system. Later, the Mughal empire (1526–1857) used standard measures to determine land holdings and collect land tax as a part of Mughal land reforms. The formal metrication in India is dated to April 1, 1957 when the Indian Government adopted the International System of Units (SI).
Standard weights and measures have existed in the Indus Valley Civilization since the 5th millennium BCE. The centralized weight and measure system served the commercial interest of Indus merchants as smaller weight measures were used to measure luxury goods while larger weights were employed for buying bulkier items, such as food grains etc. Weights existed in multiples of a standard weight and in categories. Technical standardization enabled gauging devices to be effectively used in angular measurement and measurement for construction. Uniform units of length were used in the planning of towns such as Lothal, Surkotada, Kalibangan, Dolavira, Harappa, and Mohenjo-daro. The weights and measures of the Indus civilization also reached Persia and Central Asia, where they were further modified. Shigeo Iwata describes the excavated weights unearthed from the Indus civilization:
| A total of 558 weights were excavated from Mohenjodaro, Harappa, and Chanhu-daro, not including defective weights. They did not find statistically significant differences between weights that were excavated from five different layers, each measuring about 1.5 m in depth. This was evidence that strong control existed for at least a 500-year period. The 13.7-g weight seems to be one of the units used in the Indus valley. The notation was based on the binary and decimal systems. Eighty-three percent of the weights which were excavated from the above three cities were cubic, and 68% were made of chert. |
Rulers made from Ivory were in use by the Indus Valley Civilization prior to 1500 BCE. Excavations at Lothal (2400 BCE) have yielded one such ruler calibrated to about 1/16 of an inch—less than 2 millimeters. Ian Whitelaw (2007)—on the subject of a ruler excavated from the Mohenjo-daro site—writes that: 'the Mohenjo-Daro ruler is divided into units corresponding to 1.32 inches (33.5 mm) and these are marked out in decimal subdivisions with amazing accuracy—to within 0.005 of an inch. Ancient bricks found throughout the region have dimensions that correspond to these units.' The Indus civilization constructed pan balances made of copper, bronze, and ceramics. One excavated pan balance from Mohenjo-daro (2600–1900 BCE) was constructed using a cord-pivot type fulcrum, a bronze beam, and two pans. A number of excavated surveying instruments and measuring rods have yielded evidence of early cartographic activity.
Weights and measures are mentioned throughout the religious and secular works of the Vedic period in India. Some sources that mention various units of measurement are Satapatha Brahmana, Apastamba Sutra, and the Eight Chapters of the grammarian Pāṇini. Indian astronomers kept a pañcānga for calculations of tithi (lunar day), vāra (weekday), naksatra (asterism), and karan (half lunar day) for social and religious events. Klostermaier (2003) states that: "Indian astronomers calculated the duration of one kalpa (a cycle of the universe during which all the heavenly bodies return to their original positions) to be 4,320,000,000 years."
Read more about History Of Measurement Systems In India: Post Maha Janapadas Period—High Middle Ages (400 BCE–1200 CE), Late Middle Ages—Republic of India (1200 CE–1947 CE Onwards)
Famous quotes containing the words history of, history, measurement, systems and/or india:
“American time has stretched around the world. It has become the dominant tempo of modern history, especially of the history of Europe.”
—Harold Rosenberg (1906–1978)
“The myth of independence from the mother is abandoned in mid- life as women learn new routes around the mother—both the mother without and the mother within. A mid-life daughter may reengage with a mother or put new controls on care and set limits to love. But whatever she does, her child’s history is never finished.”
—Terri Apter (20th century)
“That’s the great danger of sectarian opinions, they always accept the formulas of past events as useful for the measurement of future events and they never are, if you have high standards of accuracy.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“Before anything else, we need a new age of Enlightenment. Our present political systems must relinquish their claims on truth, justice and freedom and have to replace them with the search for truth, justice, freedom and reason.”
—Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–1990)
“India has 2,000,000 gods, and worships them all. In religion other countries are paupers; India is the only millionaire.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)