Indian Local Unit Converter
Convert seer, maund, tola, gaj, hath, kos and other traditional Indian measures.
Seer, maund, tola, gaz, hath and kos still appear in agricultural markets, jewellery shops, older land documents and everyday speech across India. This converter turns them into metric equivalents, and back, across weight, length, volume and area.
What are you converting?
Result
Fill in the fields above and your result will appear here.
What the Indian Local Unit Converter does
India moved to the metric system in the late 1950s, but traditional measures did not disappear. Grain markets still quote in maund in parts of the north, jewellers work in tola, and property is described in gaj across much of the country.
These units were regional before standardisation, so a seer in one district was not always a seer in another. The values used here are the most widely accepted modern equivalents — one seer as 0.9331 kg, one tola as 11.664 g, one gaz as one yard — but older documents may reflect local variants.
How to use this tool
- Choose whether you are converting weight, length, volume or area.
- Enter the quantity and select the unit it is in.
- Read the headline conversion into the standard metric unit.
- Use the full table to see every equivalent at once, along with what one of each unit is worth.
- For land units that vary by state — bigha, katha, biswa — use the state land unit converter instead.
Formula and method
Every unit is defined against a base:
Weight → kilograms · Length → metres
Volume → litres · Area → square feet
Base value = Quantity × Base value of the source unit
Result = Base value ÷ Base value of the target unit
Common equivalents:
1 seer = 0.9331 kg 1 maund = 40 seer = 37.324 kg
1 tola = 11.664 g 1 ratti = 0.1822 g
1 gaz = 1 yard = 0.9144 m 1 hath = 18 inches = 0.4572 m
1 kos = about 3.22 km 1 gaj (area) = 9 sq ft
Worked example
Example: 5 maund of wheat
| In kilograms | 186.62 kg |
| In quintals | 1.866 qtl |
| In seer | 200 |
Useful when a mandi quotes in maund and the procurement rate is per quintal — the conversion decides whether a price is competitive.
What your result means
Weight conversions matter most in agricultural markets, where a price quoted per maund has to be compared with an MSP quoted per quintal.
Tola remains standard in the Indian gold trade. One tola is 11.664 grams, so a tola of gold is slightly more than the 10 grams that prices are usually quoted in.
Gaj is ambiguous by context: as a length it is a yard, and as an area it is a square yard, which is nine square feet. Property listings almost always mean the area.
Important considerations
- Historical documents may use local variants that differ from these standard values. Where a land or sale document is involved, the recorded area or weight governs.
- Jewellery transactions in tola should be confirmed against the jeweller's own standard, since the difference between 11.664 g and a rounded 11.66 g matters at gold prices.
- Agricultural markets in different states use different customary units. Quintal is the standard for procurement and is what MSP is quoted in.
- Kos was historically a walking distance rather than a precise measure, and varied considerably. Treat it as approximate.
- For land area, state-specific units are handled separately because bigha and katha genuinely differ by state.
- When drafting any agreement, state quantities in metric units with the traditional unit in brackets, not the other way round.
Limitations of this tool
- It uses standard modern equivalents. Regional historical variants of the same unit name are not modelled.
- It does not cover state-varying land units such as bigha and katha, which have their own converter.
- Trade-specific measures used in particular commodities or regions may differ from the values here.
Frequently asked questions
How many kilograms is one seer?
One seer is 0.9331 kilograms under the standard modern equivalent, and forty seer make one maund of about 37.32 kg.
How many grams is one tola?
11.664 grams. Gold prices in India are usually quoted per 10 grams, so one tola is slightly more than one quoted unit.
Is gaj a length or an area?
Both, depending on context. As a length it is a yard, 0.9144 metres. In property listings it means a square yard, which is nine square feet — and that is almost always the intended meaning.
Are these units still legal for trade?
India's legal metrology framework requires metric units for trade. Traditional units remain in everyday and market usage, but contracts and invoices should state metric quantities.