| Standard: | Arthashastra |
| Quantity: | length |
| Units1: | SI units |
| Inunits1: | ; (in ancient Cambodia) |
| Units2: | Imperial/US units |
| Inunits2: |
A yojana (Devanagari: योजन; Khmer language: យោជន៍;[1] Thai: โยชน์; Burmese: ယူဇနာ) is a measure of distance that was used in ancient India, Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar. Various textual sources from ancient India defines Yojana as ranging from 3.5 to 15 km.[2] [3]
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.[4]
| 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 |
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 | As per Manusmriti, one trasareṇu is the size of the smallest moving speck of dust visible to naked eye.[5] [6] | |
| 8 trasarenus | 1 bālāgra (tip of a hair strand) | ||
| 8 bālāgra | 1 likhsha (size of a nit)[7] | ||
| 8 liksha | 1 yūka (size of a louse)[8] | ||
| 8 yūkas | 1 yava (width of barley grain of medium size)[9] | ||
| 8 yava | 1 aṅgula (finger-breadth) | Estimated between 1.73cm (00.68inches) to 1.91cm (00.75inches).[10] | |
| 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)[11] | ~ 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)[12] | ~ 192 cm (75 inches) | |
| 2,000 dhanus[13] | 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 |
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 5abbr=onNaNabbr=on, and the same was true for Aryabhata's Aryabhatiya (499). However, 14th-century mathematician Paramesvara defined the yojana to be about 1.5 times larger, equivalent to about 8abbr=onNaNabbr=on. A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada gives the equivalent length of a yojana as about 8abbr=onNaNabbr=on[14] throughout his translations of the Bhagavata Purana. 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 6.7miles and 8.2miles.[15]