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Yojana

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Yojana
Unit systemArthashastra
Unit oflength
Conversions
1in...... is equal to...
SI units12.8km;16km(in ancientCambodia)
Imperial/USunits2.7mi

Ayojana(Devanagari:योजन;Khmer language:យោជន៍;[1]Thai:โยชน์;Burmese:ယူဇနာ) is a measure ofdistancethat was used in ancientIndia,Cambodia,ThailandandMyanmar.Various textual sources from ancient India defines Yojana as ranging from 3.5 to 15 km.[2][3]

Edicts of Ashoka (3rd century BCE)[edit]

Ashoka,in hisMajor Rock Edict No.13,gives a distance of 600 yojanas between the Maurya empire, and "where theYonaking 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 theYonaking 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) theCholasandPandyas(are ruling), as far asTamraparni.

— 13th Major Rock Edict. Translation byE. Hultzsch(1857–1927).[5]

Yojana in geodesy[edit]

Earth's diameter and/or circumference in yojanas as mentioned by classical Hindu astronomers[note 1]
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

Hindu units of length[edit]

Units[edit]

In Hindu scriptures,Paramāṇuis 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 dustvisible to naked eye.[7][8][a]
8 trasarenus 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 yūkas 1 yava (width ofbarleygrain 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 fingers 1 pada (thebreadthof a foot) other sources define this unit differently: seePada (foot)
2 padas 1 vitasti (spanor 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 hastas 1 náriká ~ 91.5 cm (36 inches / 3 feet)
2 nárikás 1 dhanu ~ 183 cm (72 inches / 6 feet)
1 paurusa a man's heightwith arms and fingers uplifted (standing reach)[14] ~ 192 cm (75 inches)
2,000 dhanus[15] 1 gavyuti or gorutam (distance at which a cow's call or lowing can be heard)
4 gavyutis 1 yojana 3.3 to 15 kilometers[3]

Variations in length[edit]

The length of the yojana varies depending on the different standards adopted by differentIndian astronomers.In theSurya Siddhanta(late 4th-century CE–early 5th-century CE), for example, a yojana was equivalent to 8.0 km (5 mi),[16]and the same was true forAryabhata'sAryabhatiya(499).[17]However, 14th-centurymathematicianParamesvaradefined the yojana to be about 1.5 times larger, equivalent to about 13 km (8 mi).[16]A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupadagives the equivalent length of a yojana as about 13 km (8 mi)[18]throughout his translations of theBhagavata Purana.InThe Ancient Geography of India,Alexander Cunninghamsays that a yojana is traditionally held to be between 8 and 9 miles and calculates by comparison with Chinese units of length that it could have been between 6.7 mi (10.8 km) and 8.2 mi (13.2 km).[19]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^Some cells are left empty because those astronomers did not explicitly give a value. The values not mentioned in the table can be approximated using the value of π prevalent during their period.
  2. ^Trasareṇu is also known asRathāreṇuorRathadhuli.Each scripture gives number of Paramāṇus in a Trasareṇu differently. In Ayurvedic scriptures, 1 Trasareṇu is 30 Paramāṇu; InVasushastratexts, one Rathadhūli is 8 Paramāṇu[6]
  3. ^As perManusmritiandArthashastra,eight Trasareṇus equals one Liksha.
  4. ^The angula is defined in theŚulbasūtrasas the length covered by 14 grains of millet arranged width-wise;Kautilyaand later authors prefer 8 grains of barley (yava).

Sources[edit]

  1. ^MISTI (2021).រង្វាស់រង្វាល់ខ្មែរបុរាណនិងសម័យ(PDF)(1st ed.). Ministry of Industry, Science, Technology & Innovation (MISTI). p. 15.
  2. ^abThapar, Romila (1997).Aśoka and the decline of the Mauryas(PDF)(Revised ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. 250–266.
  3. ^abGupta, C. C. Das (1951)."A NOTE ON AN EXPRESSION IN ROCK EDICT XIII OF AŚOKA".Proceedings of the Indian History Congress.14:68–71.ISSN2249-1937.JSTOR44303939.
  4. ^Inscriptions of Asoka p.43
  5. ^Inscriptions of Asoka p.43.Published in India in 1925. Domain.
  6. ^wisdomlib.org (2014-08-03)."Paramanu, Paramāṇu, Parama-anu: 30 definitions".wisdomlib.org.Retrieved2023-09-17.
  7. ^Jha, Ganganatha (2016-12-11)."Manusmriti Verse 8.132".wisdomlib.org.Retrieved2023-09-17.
  8. ^Bühler, George.The Laws of Manu.
  9. ^"लिक्षा".learnsanskrit.cc.
  10. ^"यूका".learnsanskrit.cc.
  11. ^Kalita, Kushal (2021-07-01)."The Matsya Purana (critical study)".wisdomlib.org.Retrieved2023-09-17.
  12. ^"Issues in Indian metrology, from Harappa to Bhāskarāchārya"(PDF).Gaṇita Bhāratī.37:125–143.
  13. ^"Sanskrit Dictionary".
  14. ^"Paurusha, Pauruṣa: 21 definitions".wisdomlib.org.2017-04-17.Retrieved2023-04-28.
  15. ^Shamasastry, Rudrapatna (2020-01-09)."Kautilya Arthashastra Measurement of Space and Time [Chapter 20]".wisdomlib.org.Retrieved2023-09-17.
  16. ^abRichard Thompson (1997), "Planetary Diameters in the Surya-Siddhanta",Journal of Scientific Exploration,11(2): 193–200 [196][unreliable source?]
  17. ^O'Connor, John J.;Robertson, Edmund F.,"Aryabhata I",MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive,University of St Andrews
  18. ^Srimad Bhagavatam 10.57.18 (translation)"one yojana measures about eight miles"
  19. ^Alexander Cunningham,Measures of Distance. Yojana, Li, Krosa.inThe Ancient Geography of India: I. I. The Buddhist Period, Including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang,Trübner and Company, 1871, pp. 571–574
  1. ^jālāntaragate bhānau yat sūkṣmaṃ dṛśyate rajaḥ | prathamaṃ tat pramāṇānāṃ trasareṇuṃ pracakṣate||132 ||
    The small mote that is seen when the sun shines through a lattice-hole they declare to be the ‘triad,’ the very first of measures.—(132)

Further reading[edit]

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