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History of measurement systems in India
The history of measurement systems in India begins in early Indus Valley Civilisation with the earliest surviving samples dated to the 5th millennium BCE.〔Iwata, 2254〕 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 1 April 1957 when the Indian Government adopted the International System of Units (SI).〔
==Early history==
Standard weights and measures have existed in the Indus Valley Civilisation since the 5th millennium BCE.〔 The centralised 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.〔Kenoyer, 265〕 Weights existed in multiples of a standard weight and in categories.〔 Technical standardisation enabled gauging devices to be effectively used in angular measurement and measurement for construction.〔Baber, 23〕 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 civilisation also reached Persia and Central Asia, where they were further modified.〔In the third millennium BCE the Indus measuring system was further developed in the ancient regions of Iran and Afghanistan -- Iwata, 2254.〕 Shigeo Iwata describes the excavated weights unearthed from the Indus civilisation:
Rulers made from Ivory were in use by the Indus Valley Civilisation prior to 1500 BCE.〔 Excavations at Lothal (2400 BCE) have yielded one such ruler calibrated to about .〔Whitelaw, 14〕 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.'〔Whitelaw, 15〕 The Indus civilisation 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.〔Schwartzberg, 1301–1302〕
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.〔Sharma & Bhardwaj, 320〕 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.〔See Sarma (2008) in ''Astronomy in India''.〕 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 432,00,00,000 years."〔Klostermaier (2003)〕
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