Yojana

A yojana (Devanagari: योजन; Thai: โยชน์; Burmese: ယူဇနာ) is a measure of distance that was used in ancient India, Thailand and Myanmar. Various textual sources from ancient India defines Yojana as ranging from 3.5 to 15 km.[1][2]

This article is about the measurement unit. For the government program, see List of central government schemes in India.
Yojana
Unit systemArthashastra
Unit oflength
Conversions
1  in ...... is equal to ...
   SI units   12.8 km
   Imperial/US units   2.7 mi

Edicts of Ashoka (3rd century BCE)

Ashoka, in his Major Rock Edict No.13, gives a distance of 600 yojanas between the Maurya empire, and "where the Yona king named Antiyoga (is ruling)", identified as King Antiochus II Theos, whose capital was Babylon. A range of estimates, for the length of a yojana, based on the ~2,000 km from Baghdad to Kandahar, on the eastern border of the empire, to the ~4,000 km to the Capital at Patna, have been offered by historians.[3][1]

....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 the Yona king named Antiyoga (is ruling), and beyond this Antiyoga, (where) four kings (are ruling), (viz, the king) named Tulamaya, (the king) named Antekina, (the king) named Maka, (and the king) named Alikyashudala, (and) likewise towards the south, (where) the Cholas and Pandyas (are ruling), as far as Tamraparni.

— 13th Major Rock Edict. Translation by E. Hultzsch (1857–1927).[4]

Yojana in geodesy
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

Units

In Hindu scriptures, Paramāṇu is the fundamental particle and smallest unit of length.

Measurement Equals to... (in Hindu measurement) Notes
8 to 30 Paramāṇus 1 trasareṇu[note 2] As per Manusmriti, one trasareṇu is the size of the smallest moving speck of dust visible to naked eye.[6][7][lower-alpha 1]
8 trasarenus 1 bālāgra (tip of an hair strand)
8 bālāgra 1 likhsha (size of a nit)[8][note 3]
8 liksha 1 yūka (size of a louse)[9]
8 yūkas 1 yava (width of barley grain of medium size)[10]
8 yava 1 aṅgula (finger-breadth) Estimated between 1.73 cm (0.68 inches) to 1.91 cm (0.75 inches).[11][note 4]
6 fingers 1 pada (the breadth of a foot) other sources define this unit differently: see Pada (foot)
2 padas 1 vitasti (span or distance between the tip of the forefinger and wrist)[12] ~ 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 height with arms and fingers uplifted (standing reach)[13] ~ 192 cm (75 inches)
2,000 dhanus[14] 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[2]

Variations in length

The length of the yojana varies depending on the different standards adopted by different Indian astronomers. In the Surya Siddhanta (late 4th-century CE–early 5th-century CE), for example, a yojana was equivalent to 8.0 km (5 mi),[15] and the same was true for Aryabhata's Aryabhatiya (499).[16] However, 14th-century mathematician Paramesvara defined the yojana to be about 1.5 times larger, equivalent to about 13 km (8 mi).[15] A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada gives the equivalent length of a yojana as about 13 km (8 mi)[17] throughout his translations of the Bhagavata Purana. Some other traditional Indian scholars give measurements between 6.4 km and 8 km (4–5 miles) or thereabouts. In The Ancient Geography of India, Alexander Cunningham says 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).[18]

See also

References

Notes
  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 as Rathāreṇu or Rathadhuli. Each scripture gives number of Paramāṇus in a Trasareṇu differently. In Ayurvedic scriptures, 1 Trasareṇu is 30 Paramāṇu; In Vasushastra texts, one Rathadhūli is 8 Paramāṇu [5]
  3. As per Manusmriti and Arthashastra, eight Trasareṇus equals one Liksha.
  4. The angula is defined in the Śulbasūtras as the length covered by 14 grains of millet arranged width-wise; Kautilya and later authors prefer 8 grains of barley (yava).

Sources
  1. Thapar, Romila (1997). Aśoka and the decline of the Mauryas (PDF) (Revised ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. 250–266.
  2. Gupta, C. C. Das (1951). "A NOTE ON AN EXPRESSION IN ROCK EDICT XIII OF AŚOKA". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 14: 68–71. ISSN 2249-1937.
  3. Inscriptions of Asoka p.43
  4. Inscriptions of Asoka p.43. Published in India in 1925. Domain.
  5. www.wisdomlib.org (2014-08-03). "Paramanu, Paramāṇu, Parama-anu: 30 definitions". www.wisdomlib.org. Retrieved 2023-09-17.
  6. Jha, Ganganatha (2016-12-11). "Manusmriti Verse 8.132". www.wisdomlib.org. Retrieved 2023-09-17.
  7. Bühler, George. The Laws of Manu.
  8. "लिक्षा". learnsanskrit.cc.
  9. "यूका". learnsanskrit.cc.
  10. Kalita, Kushal (2021-07-01). "The Matsya Purana (critical study)". www.wisdomlib.org. Retrieved 2023-09-17.
  11. "Issues in Indian metrology, from Harappa to Bhāskarāchārya" (PDF). Gaṇita Bhāratī. 37: 125–143.
  12. "Sanskrit Dictionary".
  13. "Paurusha, Pauruṣa: 21 definitions". www.wisdomlib.org. 2017-04-17. Retrieved 2023-04-28.
  14. Shamasastry, Rudrapatna (2020-01-09). "Kautilya Arthashastra Measurement of Space and Time [Chapter 20]". www.wisdomlib.org. Retrieved 2023-09-17.
  15. Richard Thompson (1997), "Planetary Diameters in the Surya-Siddhanta", Journal of Scientific Exploration, 11 (2): 193–200 [196]
  16. O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Aryabhata I", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St Andrews
  17. Srimad Bhagavatam 10.57.18 (translation) "one yojana measures about eight miles"
  18. Alexander Cunningham, Measures of Distance. Yojana, Li, Krosa. in The 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
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