List of customary units of measurement in South Asia

The origins of the customary units of measurement in South Asia are varied.

As in Europe, there were various local systems of everyday measurements of length, mass and dry volume (the latter being a de facto measure of mass for many staple grains), while gold, pearls and gemstones were weighed on a different, slightly more standardized scale.

Some South Asian customary units were redefined in terms of imperial Units by an Ordinance of 1833,[1] and several gained sufficient currency among the colonial population to be listed in the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary.

An early attempt was made at metrication with the Indian Weights and Measures of Capacity Act, 1871,[2] but this had still not been implemented in practice in 1922.

[3][4] Full metrication with the passage of the Standards of Weights and Measures Act, 1956,[5] now replaced by the Standards of Weights and Measures Act, 1976:[6] these Acts quote the legal conversion factors for imperial units to SI units.