The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c11: Appendix B. Measures of Distance. Yojana, Li, Kroṣa.

The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c11

Language: English

Appendix B. Measures of Distance. Yojana, Li, Kroṣa.

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 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:—

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¹ Julien's 'Hiouen Thsang,' ii. 60.

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| | Fa-Hian. | Hw. Thsang. |
| I. Srâvastì to Kapila . . | 13 *yojanas* | or 500 *li*. |
| II. Kapila to Kusinagara . | 12 ,, | 485 ,, |
| III. Nâlanda to Giryek . . | 1 ,, | 58 ,, |
| IV. Vaisâli to the Ganges . | 4 ,, | 135 ,, |
| | Total 30 *yojanas* | = 1178 *li*. |
| | Or 1 ,, | = 39¼ ,, |

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Hwen Thsang describes the *yojana* as equal to 8 *kroṣas*, 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 *kroṣas*, 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 kos of 2¼ miles that is in use in many parts of India at the present day.

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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,* 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, while 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.

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The following distances recorded by Fa-Hian show that the value of the yojana in British road distance was about 6¾ 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.

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| | Fa-Hian. | | British roads. |
| I. Bheḍa to Mathura | . . 80 *yojanas*, | or | 536 miles. |
| II. Mathura to Sankisa | . . 18 | ,, | 115¾ ,, |
| III. Sankisa to Kanoj | . . 7 | ,, | 50 ,, |
| IV. Banâras to Patna | . . 22 | ,, | 152 ,, |
| V. Patna to Champa | . . 18 | ,, | 136½ ,, |
| VI. Champa to Tamluk | . . 50 | ,, | 316 ,, |
| VII. Nâlanda to Giryek | . . 1 | ,, | 9 ,, |
| | | | —————— |
| | | | 196 *yojanas*, or 779¼ miles. |

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These distances make the yojana of Fa-Hian equal to 6·71 miles of British road measurement.

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∗ Strabo, Geogr. xv. i. 50. This statement is confirmed by the ‘Lalita Vistara,’ in which the kroṣa of Magadha is valued at 4000 cubits. (Foucaux, p. 142.)

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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 length, as the old zigzag cart-tracks were considerably longer than the straight British roads.

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| | Hw. Thsang. | British roads. |
| I. Madâwar to Govisana | . . . 400 *li*, or | 66 miles. |
| II. Kosâmbi to Kusapura | . . . 700 ,, | 114 ,, |
| III. Srâvasti to Kapila | . . . 500 ,, | 85 ,, |
| IV. Kusinagara to Banâras | . . . 700 ,, | 120 ,, |
| V. Banâras to Ghazipur | . . . 300 ,, | 48 ,, |
| VI. Ghazipur to Vaisâli | . . . 580 ,, | 103 ,, |
| | 3360 *li*, or | 567 miles. |

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The average of these distances gives 5·925, or nearly 6 *li* to the mile, which is the value that I have used throughout this work for reducing the numbers of Hwen Thsang to road distance in British miles.

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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.

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M. Vivien de Saint-Martin, quoting Le Père Gaubil,* shows that the Chinese *li*, shortly after the time of Hwen Thsang, was equal to 329 mètres, 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 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.

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∗ '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.

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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.

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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.

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1. The short *kos*, generally known as the *Pádsháhi* or *Panjábi* *kos*, which is in common use in North-west India and the Panjâb, is about 1 1/4 mile in length.

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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.

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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.

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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 *krośa*, or *kos*, as either 4000 or 8000 cubits. The smaller *kos* must have been in use in Magadha in the time of Megasthenes,[*] as he records that pillars were set up at every ten stadia along the royal road to mark the distances. Now 10 stadia are equal to 6066·72 feet, or just 4000 *hastas*, or cubits, which, according to the ‘Lalita Vistara,’ was the actual value of the *kroṣa* of Magadha. The longer measure of 8000 *hastas*, or cubits, is given by Bhâskara in the ‘Lilâvati,’ and by other native authorities.

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∗ Strabo, Geogr., xv. 1. 50.

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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 ·72976 of an inch. Mr. Thomas makes it slightly less, or ·72289. The mean of our measurements is ·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 *kroṣa* or *kos*, it seems probable that the *dhanu* must have contained 100 *angulas* to preserve the centenary scale.* 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 Bâzârs. Adopting this value of the *hasta*, the higher measures would be:—

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As this value of the *kroṣa* or *kos* is within 15 feet of that derived from the statement of Megasthenes, I think that it may be accepted as a very near approximation to the actual value of the ancient *krośa* of Magadha.

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∗ The same confusion of the numbers 96 and 100 exists in the monetary scale, in which we have 2 *bâraganis*, or ‘twelvers,’ equal to 1 *panchi*, or ‘twenty-fiver.’

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The larger kos of the Gangetic provinces, which measured 8000 *hastas*, would be just double the above, or 12104 feet, or rather more than 2¼ miles.

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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.* According to him, Shir Khan fixed the *kroh*, or kos, at 60 *jarîbs*, 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 1¾ mile. Another kos was established by Akbar, composed of 5000 Ilâhi *gaz*, the value of which is said to be equal to 41 Sikandaris. But this is certainly a mistake, as the existing Ilâhi *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 *minârs* on the royal road "from Agra to Lahor of Great Mogul." But as the people generally attribute the erection of the present kos *minârs* to Shah Jahân, 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, Jahângîr, 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.†

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∗ ‘Ayin Akbari,’ i. 171.

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† ‘Memoirs of Jahângîr,’ p. 90. The distances between the Sarais vary from 9 to 13 miles.

Linked texts (2)

Līlāvaī — Kouhala, Māhārāṣṭrī Prakrit
Ἰνδικά — Μεγασθένης, Ancient Greek