A yojana (Devanagari: योजन; Khmer language: យោជន៍; Thai:โยชน์; Burmese:ယူဇနာ) is a measure of distance that was used in ancient India, Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar. Some sources define the unit as the distance an army can march in a day. Various textual sources from ancient India define Yojana as ranging from 3.5 to 15km.

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 ~2,000km from Baghdad to Kandahar, on the eastern border of the empire, to the ~4,000km to the Capital at Patna, have been offered by historians.

....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).

The Mahabharata (500 BCE – 300 CE)

Offers:

... The Moon is handed down by memory to be eleven thousand yojanas in diameter. Its peripheral circle happens to be thirty three thousand yojanas when calculated. ... The Sun is eight thousand yojanas and another two thousand yojanas in diameter. From that its peripheral circle comes to be equal to thirty thousand yojanas. ...

—"verses: 6.12.40–45, Bhishma Parva of the Mahabharata"

Given the Moon's diameter is now known to be approximately 3,475km and mean radius of 21,833km, while the Sun's diameter is approximately 1,391,400km, the stated values offer conflicting lengths for a yojana, in the verse, between - 0.316km and 139.14km.

Yojana in geodesy

Earth's diameter and/or circumference in yojanas as mentioned by classical Hindu astronomers
Diameter (12,756 km)Circumference (40,075 km)
Aryabhata (476–550 CE)1,050 yojana
Surya Siddhānta (500-800 CE)1,600 yojana
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 yojana5,000 yojana
Bhāskara II (1114–1185 CE)1,581 yojana4,967 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.

MeasurementEquivalence (in Hindu measurement)Notes
8 to 30 Paramāṇus1 trasareṇuAs per Manusmriti, one trasareṇu is the size of the smallest moving speck of dust visible to the naked eye.
8 trasarenu1 bālāgra (tip of a hair strand)
8 bālāgra1 likhsha (size of a nit)
8 liksha1 yūka (size of a louse)
8 yūka1 yava (width of barley grain of medium size)
8 yava1 aṅgula (finger-breadth)Estimated between 1.73cm (0.68 inches) to 1.91cm (0.75 inches).
6 angula1 pada (the breadth of a foot)other sources define this unit differently: see Pada (foot)
2 pada1 vitasti (span or distance between the tip of the forefinger and wrist)~ 22.86cm (9 inches)
2 vitasti1 hasta (cubit)~ 45.7cm (18 inches)
2 hasta1 náriká~ 91.5cm (36 inches / 3 feet)
2 náriká1 dhanu~ 183cm (72 inches / 6 feet) to 192cm ( 75.6 inches / 6 feet 3.5 inches)
1 paurusaa man's height with arms and fingers uplifted (standing reach)~ 192cm (75 inches)
2,000 dhanu1 gavyuti or gorutam (distance at which a cow's call or lowing can be heard)~ 3.66 to 3.84km
4 gavyuti1 yojana~ 15 kilometers

Variations in length

The length of the yojana varied over time and locale, its length has been estimated as:

See also

Notes

Sources

Further reading