A number of different units of measurement were used in Sri Lanka to measure quantities like length, mass and capacity. Under the British Empire, imperial units became the official units of measurement and remained so until Sri Lanka adopted the metric system in the 1970s.
Contents
Traditional units
Various units were used in Sri Lanka at different times and some only in certain regions. Some of these remained in use well into the colonial period. The following is only a partial list.
Length
One covid was equal to 0.464 m (18.5 in). The bamba, still in use as of 2016, is the distance between a man's outstretched arms. It is roughly 6 feet in length. "Bamba" is usually used to measure depth in wells and pits. Units used in measuring road distances included the gavva and yoduna (plurals gavu and yojana - a yoduna was 4 gavu) and the hoo kiyana dura.
Area was often measured in terms of the land that could be sown with a specific amount of seed or rice, including the pala, amuna (4 pala), kiriya (4 amunas), and the riyana. In one region, a kiriya was about 8 acres.
Prinsep, writing in 1840, stated that "at ... Ceylon ... English measures only are used, or at least a cubit based on the English measure of 18 inches."
Weight
One candy, or one bahar, was equal to 226.8 kg, or 500 lbs, or according to The Indian Trader's Guide 480 Dutch pounds or 520 pounds Avoirdupois.
Small weights could be measured in seeds, such as the tala, amu, vee ata (3 amu), madati (8 vee ata), majadi, maditi, kalanda, and manjadi.
Capacity
Different units were used for liquid and dry capacity.
Liquid
One seer was equal to 1.2 quarts and one parrah was equal to 6.75 gallons.
Another source suggests that a seer was equal to 1.86 imperial pints or 1.06 litres.
Dry
One ammonam was equal to 203.4 l. One parrah = 1/8 ammonam, oneseer = 1/288 ammonam and the chundoo was equal to nearly half a pint.
Maccauly stated in 1818 that to the north of Colombo an Ammonam contained 16 Parahs, and 2.5 Ammonams equalled one Acre, but that to the south there were 8 Parahs to the Ammonam. He describes the Parah as a measure 16.7 inches wide and 5.6 inches deep.
Montgomery, writing in 1835, described the interior measurement of a Parrah as a perfect cube of 11.571 inches, and the seer as a cylinder of depth 4.35 inches and diameter 4.35 inches.