Tamil Units Of Measurement
Measurements in ancient Tamil-speaking South India were widely different from modern day metric and imperial systems. These ancient measurement systems spanned systems of counting, distances, volumes, time, weight as well as tools used to do so. While India is one of the countries to use the metric system International System of Units (Tamil Nadu state included), some of these older day measurement systems, especially those of counting are used in the present day.
Other units that have persisted are those of area – the 'ma' (not to be confused with the dollar-cent) and the ‘ground’, both used to measure land and the ‘molam’ which has been relegated to measuring the length of a jasmine-garland sold on streets.
There are several similarities between the measurement system used in Tamil Nadu and that used by the Indus Valley civilization. A shift of Indian mathematicians to South India after the 12th century could be a driving factor for homogenization. However, this remains a hypothesis because study of ancient science has been neglected in India. A large number of ancient manuscripts in Kerala and Tamil Nadu remain untranslated and unpublished.
Read more about Tamil Units Of Measurement: Units of Time in Ancient Tamil History, Area Measurement, Likeness (Saartthal), Whole Numbers, Fractions, Currency
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