The Ancient Geography of India/Appendix-B Measures of Distance, Yojana, Li, Krosa
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Appendix-B: Measures of Distance, Yojana, Li, Krosa
The measures of distance noted by the Chinese pilgrims are the Indian yojana and the Chinese li. The first is generally used by the elder traveller, Fa-Hian, and the other by the later travellers. Sung-Yun and Hwen Thsang. The kroṣa or kos, which is the common Indian measure of length at the present day, is not used by any of them. Hwen Thsang mentions that the yojana, according to tradition, was equivalent to 40 Chinese li, but that the measure then in use was equal to only 30 li.1
Comparison of the different pilgrims' recorded distances
From a comparison of the different pilgrims' recorded distances between well-known places, it appears that Hwen Thsang adopted the traditional measure of the yojana as equal to 40 li. I give four distances as an example : —
| S.No. | Places | Fa-Hian's yojanas | Hwen Thsang's Li |
|---|---|---|---|
| I. | Sravasti to Kapila | 13 | 500 |
| II. | Kapila to Kusinagara | 12 | 485 |
| III. | Nalanda to Giryek | 1 | 58 |
| IV. | Vaisali to the Ganges | 4 | 135 |
| Total | 30 yojanas = | 1178 li. | |
| Or l yojana = | 39-1/4 Li |
Hwen Thsang describes the yojana as equal to 8 krosas, or kos, of 500 dhanus, or " bow lengths " of 4 cubits each. The yojana would therefore be only 24,000 feet, or a little more than 4½ miles. But in all the Hindu books the yojana is reckoned at 4 krosas, either of 1000 or of 2000 dhanus or bow lengths. The former value agrees with the length of the yojana as stated by Hwen Thsang, and the latter is the double measure of about 9 miles, which gives the common
1 Julien's ' Hiouen Thsang,' ii. 60.
[p.572]: kos of 2-1/4 miles that is in use in many parts of India at the present day.
The smaller kos of upwards of 6000 feet is certainly an old Indian measure, as Strabo mentions, on the authority of Megasthenes, that along the royal road to Palibothra there were pillars set up at every 10 stadia,1 or 6067½- feet apart, to mark the distance. Taking this valuation of the kos, the yojana would be little more than 24,000 feet, or 4½ miles, where the actual Chinese li of 30 to the yojana would be only 800 feet, and the traditional li of 40 to the yojana not more than 600 feet. There would consequently be 6½ of the former, and 8½ of the latter to the British mile. But from a comparison of the recorded distances of the Chinese pilgrims with the actual measured road distances between well-ascertained places, it would appear that there must be some mistake in the value of 30 li, assigned to the Indian yojana by Hwen Thsang.
Fa-Hian's yojana as compared with British road distances
The following distances recorded by Fa-Hian show that the value of the yojana in British road distance was about 6-3/4 miles, but as the old native cart-tracks generally followed a zigzag route from village to village, the actual length of the yojana may be taken at 7½ or 8 miles.
| S.No. | Places | Fa-Hian yojanas. | British roads miles. |
|---|---|---|---|
| I. | Bheda to Mathura | 80 | 536 |
| II. | Mathura to Sankisa | 18 | 115-3/4 |
| III. | Sankisa to Kanoj | 7 | 50 |
| IV. | Banaras to Patna | 22 | 152 |
| V. | Patna to Champa | 18 | 136½ |
| VI. | Champa to Tamluk | 50 | 316 |
| VII. | Nalanda to Giryek | 1 | 9 |
| Total | 196 yojanas | 779-1/4 miles |
These distances make the yojana of Fa-Hian equal to 6.71 miles of British road measurement.
1 Strabo, Geogr. xv. i. 50. This statement is confirmed by the ' Lalita Vistara,' in which the krosa of Magadha is valued at 4000 cubits (Foucaux, p. 142.)
Hwen Thsang's Li as compared with British road distances
[p.573]: A similar comparison of Hwen Thsang's measurements establishes the value of his li at one-sixth of a mile in road distance ; but it is probable that it was not less than one-fifth of a mile in actual lengthy as the old zigzag cart-tracks were considerably longer than the straight British roads.
| S.No. | Places | Hwen Thsang li. | British roads miles. |
|---|---|---|---|
| I. | Madawar to Govisana | 400 | 66 |
| II. | Kosambi to Kusapura | 700 | 114 |
| III. | Sravasti to Kapila | 500 | 85 |
| IV. | Kusinagara to Banaras | 700 | 120 |
| V. | Banaras to Ghazipur | 300 | 48 |
| VI. | Ghazipur to Vaisali | 580 | 103 |
| 3360 li | 567 miles. |
The average of these distances gives 5.925;, or nearly 6 li to the miles which is the value that I have used throughout this work for reducing the numbers of Hwen Thsang to road distance in British miles.
These independent values of the yojana and li mutually corroborate each other ; for as Hwen Thsang states that the yojana was traditionally said to be equal to 40 li, the value of the yojana, according to his recorded distances, was 40 divided by 5.925, or 6.75 miles, which is practically the same result as 6.71 miles, the value already deduced from Fa-Hian's distances between well-known places.
M. Vivien de Saint-Martin, quoting Le Pere Gaubil,1 shows that the Chinese li, shortly after the time of Hwen Thsang, was equal to 329 metres, or 1079.12 English feet. As this agrees very nearly with the value of one-fifth of an English mile, or 1056 feet, which I have deduced for the li from the recorded distances of Hwen Thsang, I think that it must have been the actual li which the pilgrim used in
1 ' Histoire de l'Astronomie Chinoise,' i. 77, quoted in Julien's ' Hiouen Thsang,' iii. 258. The value of the li is determined from the mean measurement of three different degrees by the Chinese astronomer Y-hang, between 713 and 756 A.D., or just one century after the date of Hwen Thsang's travels.
[p.574]: estimating the length of his marches in India. Accepting it as the true value of the Chinese li of the seventh century, the length of the yojana would have been 43,164.8 feet, or nearly 8-3/16 miles, which agrees very closely with the popular valuation at from 8 to 9 miles.
The actual value of the Chinese li in the seventh century was, therefore, 1079.12 feet, or rather more than one-fifth of an English mile ; but for the reasons which I have assigned, and the proofs which I have adduced, its value in British road distance was not more than one-sixth of an English mile.
The variations in the length of the Indian kos
The variations in the length of the Indian kos must have puzzled the Chinese pilgrims. It is on this account perhaps that Fa-Hian uses the greater measure of the yojana, while Hwen Thsang records all distances in his native li. At the present day the length of the kos varies in almost every district ; but practically there are only three absolutely distinct values of the kos now in use in Northern India.
1. The short kos, generally known as the Pādshāhi or Panjābi kos, which is in common use in North-west India and the Panjab, is about 1-1/4 mile in length.
2. The kos of the Gangetic provinces, which is in use throughout the districts on both banks of the Ganges, was about 2-1/4 miles in length, but for the sake of convenience it is now generally considered as equal to 2 British miles.
3. The Bundela kos, which is in use throughout Bundelkhand, and other Hindu provinces to the south of the Jumna, is about 4 miles in length. The same long kos is also in use in Mysore, in Southern India.
I take the first of these kos to have been originally just one -half of the second, so that the two measures were parts of the same system. Thus Wilson states the value of the krosa, or kos, as either 4000 or 8000 cubits. The smaller kos must have been in use in Magadha in the time of Megasthenes,1 as he records that pillars were set up at every ten stadia along the royal road to mark the distances. Now
1 Strabo, Geogr., xv. i. 50.
[p.575]: 10 stadia are equal to 6066.72 feetj or just 4000 hastas, or cubits, which, according to the 'Lalita Vistara,' was the actual value of the krosa of Magadha. The longer measure of 8000 hastas, or cubits, is given by Bhaskara in the ' Lilavati,' and by other native authorities.
Indian measures of angulas and hastas
To determine the exact value of these measures we must have recourse to the unit from which they were raised. This is the angula, or ' finger,' which in India is somewhat under three-quarters of an inch. By my measurement of 42 copper, coins of Sikandar Ludi, which we know to have been adjusted to fingers' breadths, the angula is 0.72976 of an inch. Mr. Thomas makes it slightly less, or 0.72289. The mean of our measurements is 0.72632 of an inch, which may be adopted as the real value of the Indian finger, or angula, as I found the actual measure of many native fingers to be invariably under three-quarters of an inch. According to this value the hasta, or cubit, of 24 angulas would be equal to 17.43168 inches, and the dhanu, or " bow," of 96 angulas would be 5.81 feet. But as 100 dhanus make one nalwa, and 100 nalwas make one krosa or kos, it seems probable that the dhanu must have contained 100 angulas to preserve the centenary scale.1 According to this view the hasta, or cubit, would have contained 25 fingers instead of 24, and its value would have been 18.158 inches, which is still below the value of many of the existing hastas, or cubits of the Indian Bazars. Adopting this value of the hasta, the higher measures would be : —
| hastas | - | Feet. | - |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 hastas | 100 angulas | 6.052 | 1 dhanu. |
| 400 hastas | 100 dhanus | 605.2 | 1 nalwa. |
| 4000 hastas | 100 nalwas | 6052 | 1 krosa. |
As this value of the krosa or kos is within 15 feet of that derived from the statement of Megasthenes, I think that it
1 The same confusion of the numbers 96 and 100 exists in the monetary scale, in which we have 2 bāraganis, or ' twelvers,' equal to 1 panchi, or ' twenty-fiver.'
[p.576]: may be accepted as a very near approximation to the actual value of the ancient krosa of Magadha.
The larger kos of the Gangetic provinces, which measured 8000 hastas, would be just double the above, or 12104 feet, or rather more than 2-1/4 miles.
In later times several of the Muhammadan kings established other values of the kos, founded on various multiples of different gaz, which they had called after their own names. Our information on this subject is chiefly derived from Abul Fazl, the minister of Akbar.1 According to him, Shir. Khan fixed the kroh, or kos, at 60 jaribs, each containing 60 Sikandari gaz, of 41½ Sikandaris, which was still in use about Delhi when Abul Fazl wrote. This kos would be equal to 9042.66 feet, or rather less than 1-3/4 mile. Another kos was established by Akbar, composed of 5000 Ilahi gaz, the value of which is said to be equal to 41 Sikandaris. But this is certainly a mistake, as the existing Ilahi gaz measures vary from 32 to 33 inches, and are therefore equal to 44 or 45 Sikandaris. Sir Henry Elliot has attempted to ascertain the value of this kos from the measurements of distances between the existing kos minars on the royal road " from Agra to Lahor of Great Mogul." But as the people generally attribute the erection of the present kos minars to Shah Jahan, who had established another gaz of his own, no dependence can be placed on his value of the Akbari kos. Sir Henry has also given undue prominence to this kos, as if it had superseded all others. That this was not the case is quite certain, as Akbar's own minister, Abul Fazl, uses the short kos throughout his descriptions of the provinces of his master's empire. Even Akabar's son, Jahangir, has discarded the Akbari kos in his autobiography, where he mentions that he ordered a Sarai to be built at every 8 kos between Lahor and Agra.2
1 ' Ayin Akbari," i. 171.
2 ' Memoirs of Jahangir, p. 90. The distances between the Sarais vary from 9 to 13 miles.
TAYLOR AND CO., PRINTERS, LITTLE QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN MELDS.