| Yojana | |
|---|---|
| Unit system | Arthashastra |
| Unit of | length |
| Conversions | |
| 1 in ... | ... is equal to ... |
| SI units | 12.8 km ;16 km (in ancientCambodia) |
| Imperial/US units | 2.7 miles |
Ayojana (Devanagari: योजन;Khmer language: យោជន៍;[1]Thai:โยชน์;Burmese:ယူဇနာ) is a measure ofdistance that was used in ancientIndia,Cambodia,Thailand andMyanmar. Various textual sources from ancient India define Yojana as ranging from 3.5 to 15 km.[2][3]
Ashoka, in hisMajor Rock Edict No.13, gives a distance of 600 yojanas between the Maurya empire, and "where theYona king namedAntiyoga (is ruling)", identified as KingAntiochus II Theos, whose capital wasBabylon. A range of estimates, for the length of a yojana, based on the ~2,000 km from Baghdad toKandahar, on the eastern border of the empire, to the ~4,000 km to the Capital atPatna, have been offered by historians.[4][2]
....And this (conquest) has been won repeatedly by Devanampriya both [here] and among all (his) borderers, even as far as at (the distance of) six hundred yojanas where theYona king namedAntiyoga (is ruling), and beyond this Antiyoga, (where) four kings (are ruling), (viz, the king) namedTulamaya, (the king) namedAntekina, (the king) namedMaka, (and the king) namedAlikyashudala, (and) likewise towards the south, (where) theCholas andPandyas (are ruling), as far asTamraparni.
— 13th Major Rock Edict. Translation byE. Hultzsch (1857–1927).[5]
| Diameter | Circumference | |
|---|---|---|
| Aryabhata (476–550 CE) | 1,050 yojana | |
| Surya Siddhānta | ||
| Varahamihira (6th century CE) | 3,200 yojana | |
| Bhāskara I (c. 600 – c. 680 CE) | 1,050 or 1600 yojana | |
| Brahmagupta (c. 598 –c. 668 CE) | 1,581 yojana | 5,000 yojana |
| Bhāskara II (1114–1185 CE) | 1,581 yojana | 4,967 yojana |
| Nilakantha Somayaji (1444 – 1545 CE) | 3,300 yojana |
In Hindu scriptures,Paramāṇu is the fundamental particle and smallest unit of length.
| Measurement | Equals to... (in Hindu measurement) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 8 to 30 Paramāṇus | 1 trasareṇu[note 2] | As perManusmriti, one trasareṇu is the size of the smallest movingspeck of dust visible to naked eye.[7][8][a] |
| 8 trasarenu | 1 bālāgra (tip of a hair strand) | |
| 8 bālāgra | 1 likhsha (size of anit)[9][note 3] | |
| 8 liksha | 1 yūka (size of alouse)[10] | |
| 8 yūka | 1 yava (width ofbarley grain of medium size)[11] | |
| 8 yava | 1aṅgula (finger-breadth) | Estimated between 1.73 cm (0.68 inches) to 1.91 cm (0.75 inches).[12][note 4] |
| 6 finger | 1 pada (thebreadth of a foot) | other sources define this unit differently: seePada (foot) |
| 2 pada | 1 vitasti (span or distance between the tip of the forefinger and wrist)[13] | ~ 22.86 cm (9 inches) |
| 2 vitasti | 1 hasta (cubit) | ~ 45.7 cm (18 inches) |
| 2 hasta | 1 náriká | ~ 91.5 cm (36 inches / 3 feet) |
| 2 náriká | 1 dhanu | ~ 183 cm (72 inches / 6 feet) to 192 cm ( 75.6 inches / 6 feet 3.5 inches)[14] |
| 1 paurusa | a man's height with arms and fingers uplifted (standing reach)[15] | ~ 192 cm (75 inches) |
| 2,000 dhanu[16] | 1 gavyuti or gorutam (distance at which a cow's call or lowing can be heard) | ~ 3.66 to 3.84 km |
| 4 gavyuti | 1 yojana | ~ 15 kilometers[3] |
The length of the yojana varied over time and locale, its length has been estimated as: