In Madras the unit of land measure is the Káni (cawny) = 1-1/3 acre of 24 grounds = 6400 square yards. So there appears to be a common unit of about 1600 square yards, with its anna or sixteenth = 100 square yards or 10 yards square.
Five káni make a Véli, the usual extent of arable land which can be cultivated for rice or other wet crops by a peasant with a yoke of oxen.
Everywhere there are seed-measures of land, as in other countries.
Weights
These are derived from a coin-weight basis, the silver rupee-weight or Tola in most parts, the golden pagoda-weight or Varahan in the south of India. In each case 80 of these coin-units made a Sér. (See Indian Coinage, in [Chap. XIII].)
| The Bengal sér, 80 tolas of 180 grs. | = | 14,400 | grs. |
| The Madras sér, 80 varahan of 54 „ | = | 4320 | „ |
The Bombay sér was based on another gold coin, the tanc (gold) of a little over 68 grains, 72 of which = 4900 grains.
The Bengal sér is, curiously enough, = 2 Cologne pounds of 7200 grains. It is divided into 16 chittaks or double ounces of 5 tolas. The tola is divided into 12 mashas (= 15 grains) of 8 ráti (the red seed of Abrus precatoria): 40 sér make a mánd = 82·28 lb.
This sér (Ang. seer), the Government standard, is really a Troy weight. The rupee of different standard in the three presidencies was fixed in 1833 at 180 grains, 3 drachms of the Troy ounce; this being so, the sér of 80 rupees weight is = 30 Troy ounces and the mánd of 40 sérs is = 1200 Troy ounces or 100 Troy pounds.
About 1870-72 the metric propaganda was epidemic among Indian Government Engineers; light railways were made on metre-gauge, and a nearly successful attempt was made to get the sér fixed at one kilogramme. An Act was about to be passed to this effect when the death of Lord Mayo stopped it, and the Act fell through.