Kanal

Indian subcontinentTraditional unit (still used in some regions)

20 marla or 5,445 square feet (505.86 m²). Used for property in Pakistan and north India.

1 kanal = 505.8570528 square meters (exactly).

About the kanal

Pakistani property listings give large plots in kanals, and the same word appears in Punjab and Haryana across the border. Under British rule the kanal was standardized as 20 marlas, which is 605 square yards or 5,445 square feet, about 505.857 square metres. That makes it exactly an eighth of an acre, so 8 kanals fill an acre, and a hectare holds about 19.77 kanals.

The kanal is the middle step in a ladder of Punjabi land units. Below it sit the marla and the sarsahi, and above it the bigha and the acre. The bigha itself is not constant: Wikipedia lists it as 4 kanals in Punjab but 5 kanals in eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, which shows how little land units agree between regions.

Elsewhere in India other local names fill the same role. In east India 1 kanal is given as 4 katha in the article's list, while in Punjab it is 5 biswa. The figure used here is the Raj-era 5,445 square feet. A kanal is about 0.05 hectare.

Sources: Wikipedia: Kanal (unit); Wikipedia: Marla (unit)

Kanal conversion chart

1 kanal expressed in every other area unit:

More Indian subcontinent units

• guntha (area)
• cent (India) (area)
• marla (area)
• tola (weight & mass)
• seer (weight & mass)
• maund (weight & mass)
• ghati (time)
• muhurta (time)
• prahar (time)
• lakh (counting & quantity)
• crore (counting & quantity)
• arab (Indian) (counting & quantity)
• kharab (Indian) (counting & quantity)

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