Ankanam Converter – Ankanam to Sq Ft, Acre, Cent & Other Land Units

Written and fact-checked by Aadil Saif. Arithmetic independently re-verified · Last updated September 2026

Part of the India Land Unit Converter series.

Read this before you use any number on this page. The ankanam has no official definition anywhere. It appears in no Andhra Pradesh or Telangana government record, in no statute, and in no gazette. The 72 sq ft figure that every converter on the internet publishes has no primary source, the two standard Telugu and Kannada dictionaries that define ankanam record only its architectural meaning and give no area at all. What exists is a strong market consensus at 72 square feet, a well-attested and still-live exception at 36 square feet around Tirupati, and a separate Kannada building measure of about 100 square feet. This page gives you all three, tells you which is which, and shows you how to find out which one applies to your plot.

The short answer, for the standard 72 sq ft ankanam:

1 ankanam = 72 square feet = 8 square yards (8 gajam) = 6.68901888 square metres

1 acre = 605 ankanam

And the reason this page opens with a warning rather than that number: a "100 ankanam" plot is 800 square yards in Nellore and 400 square yards in Tirupati. Both usages are live in the market today. On the single most commonly quoted round figure, the same two words describe twice the land.

Ankanam Conversion Calculator

Standard applied: this calculator uses the 72 sq ft (8 sq yd) ankanam unless you select the Tirupati 36 sq ft variant. It states which standard it has applied above every result. If you have not confirmed which ankanam your document uses, the number it returns is a default, not an answer, see How to Find Out Which Ankanam Applies to Your Plot.

Ankanam Square Feet Square Yards (Gajam) Square Metres Cent Acre
1 72 8 6.6890 0.1653 0.001653
2 144 16 13.3780 0.3306 0.003306
5 360 40 33.4451 0.8264 0.008264
10 720 80 66.8902 1.6529 0.016529
20 1,440 160 133.7804 3.3058 0.033058
25 1,800 200 167.2255 4.1322 0.041322
50 3,600 400 334.4509 8.2645 0.082645
100 7,200 800 668.9019 16.5289 0.165289
200 14,400 1,600 1,337.8038 33.0579 0.330579
500 36,000 4,000 3,344.5094 82.6446 0.826446
1,000 72,000 8,000 6,689.0189 165.2893 1.652893

Start Here: Which Ankanam Applies to You?

Where the land is Ankanam in use Sq ft Sq yd Per acre Evidence
Nellore district, AP Standard 72 8 605 Live listings quoting 25, 30 and 50 ankanam plots and per-ankanam prices
Tirupati, AP Tirupati variant 36 4 1,210 Local agency guidance naming the variant; live listings quoting 40, 100 and 200 ankanam plots
Chittoor district, AP Tirupati variant reported 36 4 1,210 Single local source; verify before relying on it
Guntur, Vijayawada, coastal AP Standard, reported 72 8 605 Secondary sources only; no local or market evidence found
Telangana Doubtful n/a n/a n/a Telangana works in guntas, not cents or ankanam. See the note below
Karnataka (Bengaluru, Anekal) Unsubstantiated n/a n/a n/a No Kannada-language land usage found. See the note below
Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Odisha Not used n/a n/a n/a Kerala's own revenue unit list contains no ankanam

On Telangana. Many converters list ankanam as a Telangana unit. A Telugu-language land-measurement reference states the regional split directly: ఆంధ్ర ప్రాంతంలో సెంటు, తెలంగాణలో గుంట: "in the Andhra region, cent; in Telangana, gunta." Telangana's record of rights states extent in acres and guntas. We found no Telangana-specific or Telugu-language source using ankanam. Treat it as an Andhra-region unit until you see it in your own document.

On Karnataka. Every English source that lists Anekal or south Bengaluru repeats the same uncited encyclopaedia entry. We searched in Kannada (ಅಂಕಣ combined with ನಿವೇಶನ (site), ಜಮೀನು (land), ಅಳತೆ (measure), ಗುಂಟೆ and ಎಕರೆ), and found no Kannada real-estate usage of ಅಂಕಣ as a land unit at all. In modern Kannada the word means a newspaper column or an architectural bay. Karnataka land records use acres and guntas; Bengaluru sites are sold as "30×40" and in square feet. The Karnataka land-unit claim is unsubstantiated, and we are not going to repeat it as fact.

Contents

Understanding the unit What Is an Ankanam? · The Three Ankanams · Where It Is Used · Official Status · Which Ankanam Applies to Your Plot · The Conversion Formula · All Formulas at a Glance

Conversions that matter in Andhra Pradesh Square Feet · Square Yard · Gajam · Cent · Acre · Square Metre · Guntha · Hectare · Ground

Standard and metric conversions Ares · Square Kilometre · Square Mile · Square Inch · Square Centimetre · Decimal · Dismil · Gaj · Perch

Cross-regional conversions (arithmetically valid, rarely needed, read the note first) Bigha · Biswa · Biswa Kacha · Katha · Dhur · Chatak · Lessa · Kanal · Marla · Square Karam · Nali · Killa · Murabba · Pura

Using the numbers Which Conversions Are Actually Useful · Converting Prices per Ankanam · Calculating Land Area in Ankanam · Ankanam vs Acre · Ankanam vs Square Feet · Ankanam vs Gajam · Accuracy and Rounding · Reverse Conversions · Worked Examples · Before You Convert · FAQ · Quick Reference

A note on spelling. Section headings use the spellings people search with in India, Square Meter, Square Centimeter, Square Kilometer. Body text uses metre, centimetre, kilometre. Same units either way. The unit itself appears as ankanam, ankanamu, ankana and, as a Telugu plural, ankanalu; all refer to the same thing.

Convert to a specific unit: Acre · Ares · Bigha · Biswa · Biswa Kacha · Cent · Chatak · Decimal · Dhur · Dismil · Gaj · Gajam · Ground · Guntha · Hectare · Kanal · Katha · Killa · Lessa · Marla · Murabba · Nali · Perch · Pura · Square Centimeter · Square Feet · Square Inch · Square Karam · Square Kilometer · Square Meter · Square Mile · Square Yard

Every one of the other thirty-two units has a section on this page. Where two units are the same area their table would be identical, so the second section points at the first rather than repeating it.

Ankanam to Other Units – Quick Conversion Formula

Every factor is an ankanam's own size, 72 square feet, divided by the target unit's. To check any row by hand, take that number, divide, and compare.

Each one comes from a single anchor, the acre at 43,560 square feet, by exact fraction arithmetic. Where a factor recurs, the formula gives the fraction rather than a rounded decimal, because a rounded factor is a wrong instruction rather than an approximate one: the fraction is what has to be carried wherever the arithmetic must close. Every row below is computed on the Standard of the ankanam, 72 square feet. The other definitions, and what each is attested by, are in the regional table on this page; a row read against the wrong one is wrong by the ratio between them.

Conversion Formula Status
Ankanam to Acre Ankanam ÷ 605 Recurring
Ankanam to Ares Ankanam × 0.0668901888 Exact
Ankanam to Bigha Ankanam ÷ 378.125 Recurring · Bigha is regional. This row is the UP pucca / Bihar / Rajasthan pucca; also 0.007934, 0.010579, 0.004132 and 5 more
Ankanam to Biswa Ankanam ÷ 18.90625 Recurring · Biswa is regional. This row is the UP / Rajasthan pucca; also 0.082645, 0.158678, 0.165289
Ankanam to Biswa Kacha Ankanam × 96/605 Recurring · Biswa Kacha is regional. This row is the Punjab / Haryana revenue; also 0.082645
Ankanam to Cent Ankanam ÷ 6.05 Recurring
Ankanam to Chatak Ankanam × 1.6 Exact
Ankanam to Decimal Ankanam ÷ 6.05 Recurring
Ankanam to Dhur Ankanam ÷ 0.9453125 Recurring · Dhur is regional. This row is the Bihar / Jharkhand (Patna chain); also 20
Ankanam to Dismil Ankanam ÷ 6.05 Recurring
Ankanam to Gaj Ankanam × 8 Exact
Ankanam to Gajam Ankanam × 8 Exact
Ankanam to Ground Ankanam × 0.03 Exact
Ankanam to Guntha Ankanam ÷ 15.125 Recurring
Ankanam to Hectare Ankanam × 0.000668901888 Exact
Ankanam to Kanal Ankanam ÷ 75.625 Recurring · Kanal is regional. This row is the Standard (66-inch karam); also 0.016, 0.017422, 0.019753
Ankanam to Katha Ankanam ÷ 18.90625 Recurring · Katha is regional. This row is the Bihar state standard; also 0.1, 0.025, 0.041322 and 2 more
Ankanam to Killa Ankanam ÷ 605 Recurring
Ankanam to Lessa Ankanam × 0.5 Exact
Ankanam to Marla Ankanam ÷ 3.78125 Recurring · Marla is regional. This row is the Standard (66-inch karam); also 0.32, 0.348431, 0.395062 and 1 more
Ankanam to Murabba Ankanam ÷ 15,125 Recurring · Murabba is regional. This row is the Punjab canal colony; also 0.000106
Ankanam to Nali Ankanam ÷ 30 Recurring
Ankanam to Perch Ankanam ÷ 3.78125 Recurring
Ankanam to Pura Ankanam × 0.00125 Exact
Ankanam to Square Centimeter Ankanam × 66,890.1888 Exact
Ankanam to Square Feet Ankanam × 72 Exact
Ankanam to Square Inch Ankanam × 10,368 Exact
Ankanam to Square Karam Ankanam × 288/121 Recurring · Square Karam is regional. This row is the Standard (66-inch karam); also 2.88, 3.135879, 3.555556
Ankanam to Square Kilometer Ankanam × 0.00000668901888 Exact
Ankanam to Square Meter Ankanam × 6.68901888 Exact
Ankanam to Square Mile Ankanam ÷ 387,200 Recurring
Ankanam to Square Yard Ankanam × 8 Exact

What Is an Ankanam?

Ankanam is not originally a land unit. It is an architectural term, and understanding that is the whole explanation for why its size varies.

In Telugu it is అంకణము. Percival's Telugu–English Dictionary, the standard nineteenth-century reference, defines it as "the space between two beams, or pillars." In Kannada it is ಅಂಕಣ, and Kittel's Kannada–English Dictionary (p. 7) gives "the (small or large) space either between any two posts or pillars in a wall that support the roof, or between any two beams."

Note what neither dictionary gives: a size. The word describes a bay, the interval between two structural supports. In a temple that interval is whatever the builder made it. In the Śilpa Śāstra literature the term appears in the same relational sense: Acharya's Dictionary of Hindu Architecture records aṅkaṇa as equivalent to aṅgaṇa, a court or courtyard, citing the Mānasāra and the Kāmikāgama, and the Āgama glossaries give aṅkaṇa as "enclosure, courtyard." No architectural text specifies a dimension for it.

The unit was therefore non-standard from the very beginning. That is not a defect that crept in later; it is the term's original nature. A word that means "the gap between two pillars" was never going to produce one number when people started counting plots with it.

The counting habit is old. Acharya's entry quotes a Kannada inscription recorded in the Epigraphia Carnatica in which one Linganna erected a mandapa of twelve anganas near a large aśvattha tree. That is a structure described by counting bays, exactly the habit that, applied to open ground, eventually produced a land measure. (We read this inscription via Acharya's dictionary rather than the epigraphic volume itself, so treat the citation as second-hand.)

How the architectural bay became a land unit is undocumented. We searched specifically for an account of that transition and found none. The plausible mechanism (house sites counted in bays, the bay settling at a convenient 4 yards by 2 yards, the count then applied to open plots) is reasoning, not recorded history, and we are labelling it as such rather than presenting it as a fact.

A note on the etymology you will see elsewhere. Several sources derive ankanam from a Dravidian anga + adugu ("foot"). No linguistic source supports this. Sanskrit aṅgaṇa, meaning courtyard, is the far more likely origin, and it matches what the architectural dictionaries actually record. Treat the "foot" derivation as folk etymology.

Basic Ankanam Conversions

At the standard 72 sq ft:

Unit 1 Ankanam Equals Exact?
Square Feet 72 Exact
Square Yard / Gajam / Gaj 8 Exact
Square Metre 6.68901888 Exact
Square Inch 10,368 Exact
Square Centimetre 66,890.1888 Exact
Are 0.0668901888 Exact
Hectare 0.000668901888 Exact
Cent / Decimal / Dismil 0.16528925619… Recurring
Acre 0.00165289256… Recurring
Guntha 0.06611570247… Recurring
Ground 0.03 Exact
Chatak 1.6 Exact
Lessa 0.5 Exact
Katha (West Bengal) 0.1 Exact
Katha (Assam) 0.025 Exact
Bigha (West Bengal / Assam) 0.005 Exact
Kuncham 0.016528925619… Recurring

Why the Ankanam Divides So Cleanly

Look at that column again. Nine of those seventeen conversions are exact, which is unusually high for a traditional Indian unit.

The reason is arithmetic: 72 = 2³ × 3². It is one of the most divisible small numbers in the whole Indian land system, and it happens to divide evenly into the square-foot sizes of a remarkable number of other units:

Unit Sq ft ÷ 72 Result
Gajam / square yard 9 72 ÷ 9 8 exactly
Chatak (West Bengal) 45 72 ÷ 45 1.6 exactly
Lessa (Assam) 144 144 ÷ 72 2 exactly
Katha (West Bengal) 720 720 ÷ 72 10 exactly
Ground (Tamil Nadu) 2,400 2,400 ÷ 72 33⅓
Katha (Assam) 2,880 2,880 ÷ 72 40 exactly
Bigha (WB / Assam) 14,400 14,400 ÷ 72 200 exactly
Pura (Assam) 57,600 57,600 ÷ 72 800 exactly

So one West Bengal katha is exactly ten ankanam, and one Assam bigha is exactly two hundred. Neither region has ever heard of the other's unit; the clean numbers are a coincidence of the shared underlying foot and yard. It is a small thing, but it makes several conversions on this page ones you can do in your head.

The awkward ones are the acre-derived units (cent, acre, guntha), because 72 does not divide 435.6 or 43,560 evenly. Those give recurring decimals, and this page marks every one of them.

The Three Ankanams: 72, 36 and ~100 Square Feet

Three distinct magnitudes are documented. They are not competing errors. They are different things that share a name, and telling them apart is the single most useful service this page performs.

Ankanam Size Sq yd Per acre Where How well attested
Standard (Andhra) 72 sq ft 8 605 Nellore, and reported across coastal AP Universal consensus; no primary source
Tirupati variant 36 sq ft 4 1,210 Tirupati, reported for Chittoor Named by a local agency; confirmed live in the market
Kannada building bay ~100 sq ft ~11.1 ~436 Karnataka, for built structures, not plots Lexicographic (Alar dictionary); explicitly approximate

The 72 sq ft standard: consensus without a source

Every English-language converter gives 72 sq ft, and they are almost certainly all downstream of one uncited encyclopaedia entry whose only two references are a dead link and Kittel's dictionary, and Kittel supports the etymology, not the number.

That does not make 72 wrong. The best independent corroboration is Telugu-language rather than English: a Telugu land-measurement reference gives ఒక ఎకరానికి 605 అంకణములు, 605 ankanams to the acre, set out alongside acre, gunta, cent and square-yard figures, and a Telugu property-education source gives 72 sq ft and about 8 square yards. The market agrees: plots in Nellore are advertised in ankanam at sizes that only make sense at 72 sq ft.

Our position: 72 sq ft is the working standard and you should use it, but you should know that no government, statute or pre-internet publication establishes it, and this page is not going to pretend otherwise.

Is it 12 ft × 6 ft? One Telugu source states the derivation directly: ఒక అంకణం = 12 అడుగుల పొడవు × 6 అడుగుల వెడల్పు. It is a single, non-authoritative source. In its favour, 12 ft × 6 ft is exactly 4 yards × 2 yards, which is a natural rectangle in the yard-based system Andhra Pradesh actually uses, and the competing decompositions (9×8, 24×3, 18×4) have no attestation at all. Plausible and elegant; not confirmed.

The 36 sq ft Tirupati variant: the one that will cost you money

This is exactly half the standard, and it is not historical. Tirupati layouts are being sold per ankanam right now, at prices quoted per ankanam with no square-foot equivalent stated in the listing.

A Tirupati-based agency sets it out plainly: "In certain areas, 1 Ankanam = 36 Sq.Ft (4 Sq.Yards)" while "in other areas, 1 Ankanam = 72 Sq.Ft (8 Sq.Yards)", and advises buyers to verify the ankanam measurement according to the Layout, Sale Deed or Registration Documents across Tirupati, Chittoor and Nellore districts. That is a local practitioner telling their own market that the unit is ambiguous within a single district cluster.

What it means in practice:

Plot advertised as At 72 sq ft At 36 sq ft
25 ankanam 1,800 sq ft (200 sq yd) 900 sq ft (100 sq yd)
40 ankanam 2,880 sq ft (320 sq yd) 1,440 sq ft (160 sq yd)
50 ankanam 3,600 sq ft (400 sq yd) 1,800 sq ft (200 sq yd)
100 ankanam 7,200 sq ft (800 sq yd) 3,600 sq ft (400 sq yd)
200 ankanam 14,400 sq ft (1,600 sq yd) 7,200 sq ft (800 sq yd)

A caution about how this variant gets extrapolated. At least one converter site assigns 36 sq ft to the whole of Rayalaseema and 72 sq ft to "coastal Andhra." That regional framing is generated, not sourced. We found no evidence of the 36 sq ft ankanam in Kadapa, Kurnool or Anantapur. Do not treat "Rayalaseema = 36" as a rule. The defensible statement is narrower: Tirupati, and reportedly Chittoor.

The ~100 sq ft Kannada building bay: a different unit entirely

The Kannada–English dictionary Alar gives ಅಂಕಣ a second sense: "an area approximately 100 sq. ft. or of the building (or that much portion of a building) standing on it."

Read that carefully. It is built space, not land; it is Kannada, not Telugu; and it is explicitly approximate. This is the traditional coastal-Karnataka and Malnad house measure, the sense in which people speak of a house of so many ankana. It is genuinely a third magnitude and it belongs in any complete account of the word, but it is not the unit an Andhra plot is measured in, and conflating the two is a real risk if you are reading older Kannada material.

The "12.5 ankanam = 1 cent" contradiction

You will meet this rule of thumb in the Tirupati market. It does not agree with either standard.

  • At 72 sq ft: 435.6 ÷ 72 = 6.05 ankanam per cent
  • At 36 sq ft: 435.6 ÷ 36 = 12.1 ankanam per cent
  • The rule of thumb says 12.5: which is 12.1 rounded up, inflating by 3.31%

What makes it worth flagging is where it appears. The same local guide that publishes "12.5 Ankanalu = 1 Cent" also publishes "100 Ankanalu = 800 Square Yards / 7,200 Square Feet", which is the 72 sq ft value, giving 6.05 per cent, not 12.5. Both figures sit in one document and they cannot both be right. If a single well-informed local agency's own guide contradicts itself on this unit, an out-of-town buyer working from a national converter has no chance. Ask for square yards.

One more error worth correcting

A widely-copied comparison table states "1 cent = 6.05 Ankanas = 48 Sq. Yards." A cent is 48.4 square yards, not 48. (435.6 ÷ 9 = 48.4.) The 6.05 figure is right and depends on 48.4, 48.4 ÷ 8 = 6.05, so the table contradicts itself. A Telugu source gives the correct figure directly: ఒక సెంట్ కు = 48.4 Syd.

Where Is Ankanam Used?

Andhra Pradesh

Nellore district is the clearest case. Plots are advertised in ankanam at sizes (25, 30, 50) that only resolve sensibly at 72 sq ft, and prices are quoted per ankanam.

Tirupati is the second clear case, and it uses the 36 sq ft variant. Live layout listings offer 40, 100 and 200 ankanam plots.

Chittoor is reported by a local source as using the Tirupati variant. Single source; verify.

Guntur, Vijayawada and coastal Andhra are named by national property references. We found no local or market evidence for these, only secondary assertions that may be repeating each other. Probably correct, weakly evidenced.

What it is used for

Every piece of live market evidence points the same way: residential plots, house sites and layout plots. Agricultural land in Andhra Pradesh is transacted and recorded in acres and cents; the record of rights states extent in acres and cents, not ankanam.

One converter blog claims the ankanam appears in "revenue department land records" and "village land surveys." That directly contradicts what the records themselves contain (see the next section). It is not a record-of-rights unit.

Urban or rural?

Small-town and peri-urban Andhra. The evidence is Tirupati and Nellore, not Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam or Bengaluru. Even on national listing portals covering Nellore, square feet dominates and ankanam appears in a minority of listings.

Regional Ankanam Context

State / Region Common usage Ankanam definition Important note
Nellore, AP Residential plots, layouts 72 sq ft Market-verified
Tirupati, AP Residential plots, layouts 36 sq ft Market-verified; half the standard
Chittoor, AP Property 36 sq ft reported Single source, verify locally
Coastal AP (Guntur, Vijayawada) Property 72 sq ft reported Secondary sources only
Telangana n/a Doubtful Telangana records use acres and guntas
Karnataka Building bays (~100 sq ft), not plots Not a land unit No Kannada land usage found
Kerala Not used n/a Kerala's revenue unit list has no ankanam

On the Kerala claim. One national property blog lists ankanam among Kerala's units. We checked a Kerala land-revenue unit list (it gives cent, are, acre, thotti, asarikol, square links and hectare, with no ankanam), and a Malayalam search returned nothing. Treat the Kerala attribution as an error.

Official Status: The Ankanam Appears in No Government Record

This is the most important verified finding on this page, and it is the one competitors omit entirely. We checked each of the following directly.

System or instrument Unit actually used Ankanam present?
AP Adangal / Form 1-B (Meebhoomi) Acres–Cents, the fields read "LP Extent (Acres-Cents)" No
Telangana ROR / Pahani / 1-B (Dharani, now Bhu Bharati) Acres–Guntas, "Total extent (Acres/Guntas)" No
AP IGRS market value (guideline value) Per square yard for open plots and house sites; per acre for agricultural No
Telangana IGRS market value Per square yard for open plots and urban land; per acre for agricultural No
AP Rights in Land and Pattadar Pass Books Act, 1971 The Act contains no area units at all No
AP Survey and Boundaries Act, 1923 The Act contains no area units at all No
DTCP / HMDA / APCRDA layout approvals Plot areas in square metres No
RERA filings, municipal property tax n/a No
Search restricted to gov.in and nic.in domains n/a No; the only hits were personal names

No government circular, gazette notification or district collector order defining the ankanam exists that we could find, in English or in Telugu.

What this means for you, practically. Your sale deed will be registered in square yards. Your stamp duty will be calculated from a guideline value quoted per square yard. Your pattadar passbook or 1-B will show acres and cents. The ankanam exists in the conversation between you and the seller, and nowhere else in the transaction. Every document that binds anyone uses a different unit.

Under the Legal Metrology Act, 2009, section 4 requires every unit of measure used in India to be metric, and section 11 prohibits expressing, "in relation to any transaction," any quantity "otherwise than in accordance with the standard unit of weight, measure or numeration." Section 10 requires prescribed measures for transactions.

Read strictly, advertising land at a price per ankanam is quoting outside standard units. We are not aware of any enforcement action against real-estate quotation, and we are not suggesting sellers are being prosecuted, note also that the square yard, which both state governments use freely, is not metric either. The honest summary is that the statute is honoured in the breach. But the legal position is what it is: the ankanam has no standing under the Act, and the square metre does.

How to Find Out Which Ankanam Applies to Your Plot

Because the unit is not defined anywhere, you cannot look this up. You have to derive it from a document. In order of reliability:

1. The sale deed or registration document. AP and Telangana register in square yards. If the deed says 400 square yards and the seller called it 50 ankanam, your ankanam is 8 sq yd, the 72 sq ft standard. If the deed says 200 square yards for the same 50 ankanam, it is the 36 sq ft variant. This is the definitive test and it takes one division.

Square yards in the deed ÷ ankanam quoted = square yards per ankanam 8 sq yd per ankanam → 72 sq ft standard · 4 sq yd per ankanam → 36 sq ft Tirupati variant

2. The approved layout plan. DTCP, HMDA and APCRDA layout approvals give plot areas in square metres. Divide by the ankanam count: 6.689 m² per ankanam is the standard; 3.345 m² is the Tirupati variant.

3. The plot dimensions. If the plot is 40 ft × 90 ft = 3,600 sq ft and it is sold as 50 ankanam, that is 72 sq ft each. If the same 3,600 sq ft is sold as 100 ankanam, that is 36 sq ft each.

4. Ask the sub-registrar's office. They will tell you what the local market convention is, but they will register in square yards regardless.

5. What not to rely on: a broker's verbal figure, a national converter's default, or a rate-per-ankanam quoted with no area attached.

The one-sentence version: get the area in square yards, in writing, before you agree a price. Everything else on this page is arithmetic; this is the only step that removes the risk.

Ankanam Conversion Formula

General Formula

Converted Value = Number of Ankanam × Conversion Factor

Number of Ankanam = Converted Value ÷ Conversion Factor

Because the ankanam is defined in square feet and nothing else, every factor on this page comes from one division:

Conversion Factor = 72 ÷ (size of the target unit in square feet)

A gajam is 9 sq ft, so 72 ÷ 9 = 8 gajam per ankanam. A cent is 435.6 sq ft, so 72 ÷ 435.6 = 0.165289… cent. A West Bengal katha is 720 sq ft, so 72 ÷ 720 = 0.1 katha exactly.

For the Tirupati variant, replace 72 with 36, every factor halves.

Exact, Rounded and Approximate

Three different things, and this page distinguishes them because the ankanam produces all three.

Exact. The result terminates. 1 ankanam = 72 sq ft = 8 sq yd = 6.68901888 m² = 10,368 sq in = 0.1 katha (WB) = 1.6 chatak = 0.03 ground. Nothing is lost.

Rounded. The exact value is finite but you have trimmed it. 6.689 m² is a rounded form of 6.68901888 m².

Recurring. No decimal is complete. 1 ankanam = 0.165289256198347… cent, and 0.0661157024793… guntha, both recur with a six-digit cycle, because 72 does not divide 435.6 or 1,089 evenly.

Conversion Type
Ankanam → sq ft, sq yd, gajam, sq m, sq in, sq cm, are, hectare, sq km Exact
Ankanam → ground, chatak, lessa, katha (WB), katha (Assam), bigha (WB/Assam), pura Exact
Ankanam → cent, decimal, dismil, acre, guntha, perch, marla, kanal, sq karam, killa, murabba, nali, sq mile Recurring
Ankanam → bigha, biswa, katha (Bihar), dhur Recurring, and regional

Worked Example

50 ankanam × 72 = 3,600 sq ft 3,600 ÷ 9 = 400 square yards 3,600 ÷ 435.6 = 8.2645 cent 3,600 ÷ 43,560 = 0.082645 acre

Ankanam to Square Feet

1 ankanam = 72 square feet. Multiply ankanam by 72. This is the conversion that matters most, because square feet is the unit both parties will understand without argument.

Formula

Square Feet = Ankanam × 72

Ankanam = Square Feet ÷ 72

The Tirupati Variant

Note the trap in row two: 2 standard ankanam and 1 Tirupati ankanam are both "72." If a listing gives you a square-foot figure and an ankanam count that disagree by exactly a factor of two, that is what has happened.

How to Convert, Step by Step

  1. Confirm which ankanam applies (see How to Find Out Which Ankanam Applies to Your Plot).
  2. Multiply the count by 72 (or 36).
  3. Sanity-check against the plot dimensions if you have them: length × width should match.

Worked Examples

1 ankanam × 72 = 72 sq ft 5 ankanam × 72 = 360 sq ft 10 ankanam × 72 = 720 sq ft 50 ankanam × 72 = 3,600 sq ft, a common Andhra house plot, also stated as 400 square yards

Ankanam and Square Feet in Property Measurement

Square feet is the neutral ground. It is what construction is costed in, what apartment carpet area is stated in, and what a buyer from outside the district will understand immediately. The ankanam is a local counting habit; the square foot is the thing both sides can check.

Practical reference points at 72 sq ft:

Plot Ankanam Square feet Square yards
Small site 25 1,800 200
Common house site 30 2,160 240
Standard plot 50 3,600 400
Large plot 100 7,200 800
Small layout parcel 200 14,400 1,600
One acre 605 43,560 4,840

Reverse Conversion

Ankanam = Square Feet ÷ 72

Square Feet Ankanam (72 sq ft)
720 10
1,000 13.8889
1,800 25
2,400 33.3333
3,600 50
5,000 69.4444
7,200 100
10,000 138.8889
43,560 605
Ankanam Square Feet
1 72
2 144
3 216
5 360
10 720
20 1,440
50 3,600
100 7,200
200 14,400
500 36,000
1,000 72,000

Square Feet = Ankanam × 72 · reverse Ankanam = Square Feet ÷ 72

Ankanam to Square Yard

1 ankanam = 8 square yards, exactly. This is the most useful conversion on the page after square feet, because Andhra Pradesh and Telangana register property in square yards, so this is the number that will appear on your deed.

Formula

Square Yards = Ankanam × 8

Ankanam = Square Yards ÷ 8

Why This Conversion Settles the Ambiguity

Divide the square-yard figure on your registered deed by the ankanam count the seller quoted:

  • 8 square yards per ankanam → the 72 sq ft standard
  • 4 square yards per ankanam → the 36 sq ft Tirupati variant

There is no third possibility in the Andhra market, and the deed is the document that binds. This single division resolves the entire question this page exists to answer.

Ankanam and Square Yard Together

Because the relationship is a clean multiple of eight, the round numbers line up neatly and are worth memorising:

25 ankanam = 200 sq yd · 50 ankanam = 400 sq yd · 100 ankanam = 800 sq yd · 605 ankanam = 4,840 sq yd = 1 acre

Reverse Conversion

Ankanam = Square Yards ÷ 8

Ankanam Square Yard
1 8
2 16
3 24
5 40
10 80
20 160
50 400
100 800
200 1,600
500 4,000
1,000 8,000

Square Yard = Ankanam × 8 · reverse Ankanam = Square Yard × 0.125

Ankanam to Gajam

1 ankanam = 8 gajam, exactly. Gajam (గజం) is simply the Telugu word for yard, used in property to mean square yard, so this is the same conversion as square yards, in the vocabulary Andhra actually speaks.

Formula

Gajam = Ankanam × 8

Gajam vs Gaj

Same unit, cognate words: gajam in Telugu, gaj in Hindi and Urdu. Both mean the square yard in property use, both are 9 sq ft, and 4,840 of either make an acre.

Which Should You Use?

The gajam figure, in writing, under its English name. The area a gajam measures is what AP and Telangana register in and what their guideline values are denominated in; the word is not. Registered deeds and the Basic Value Register both say "square yards", and a search of the Indian legal corpus finds no document using gajam as a unit at all. So ask the seller for the gajam figure, you need it for the deed, and expect the deed itself to print the same number as square yards. What that evidence is, and what it does and does not prove, is set out under the Telugu name.

A value to disregard. One land-unit converter lists gajam at roughly 43.56 sq ft with about 1,000 per acre. That is wrong by a factor of 4.84 and breaks every other relationship in the Andhra system, the ankanam (8 gajam), the guntha (121 gajam) and the ground (266.67 gajam) all rest on the 9 sq ft gajam.

The Andhra Ladder

Unit In gajam In sq ft
1 gajam 1 9
1 ankanam 8 72
1 cent 48.4 435.6
1 guntha 121 1,089
1 kuncham 484 4,356
1 acre 4,840 43,560

Note kuncham, which appears alongside ankanam in Andhra and is worth knowing: 1 kuncham = 484 sq yd = 60.5 ankanam, and 10 kuncham = 1 acre. It is the tidiest ladder in the Andhra system, ten kunchams to the acre, 60.5 ankanam to the kuncham.

Ankanam = Gajam ÷ 8

9 square feet either way, so the Ankanam to Square Yard figures apply unchanged. What differs between the two is the record each word belongs to, not the size.

Gajam = Ankanam × 8 · reverse Ankanam = Gajam × 0.125

Ankanam to Cent

1 ankanam = 0.165289… cent, and 1 cent = 6.05 ankanam exactly. The cent is the small unit of agricultural and larger land across southern India, defined as exactly one-hundredth of an acre.

The cent is the bridge between the ankanam and the record. Andhra Pradesh's Adangal and Form 1-B state extent in acres and cents, so if your plot appears in a revenue record at all, this is the conversion that connects the seller's language to the government's.

Formula

Cent = Ankanam ÷ 6.05 · Ankanam = Cent × 6.05

Ankanam and Cent

What a cent is: exactly 1/100 acre = 435.6 sq ft = 48.4 sq yd = 40.4685642 m². Its origin is the surveyor's chain, 1,000 square links, where 100,000 square links make an acre. It has no regional variation and none is possible; a cent that was not 1/100 acre would not be a cent.

Where it is used: Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. It is also the same unit as the decimal or dismil of Bihar and Bengal, and the Bengali shatak.

Is the conversion fixed? Once the ankanam definition is settled, yes, completely. 6.05 ankanam = 1 cent at 72 sq ft; 12.1 ankanam = 1 cent at 36 sq ft. Both are exact. The uncertainty is never in the arithmetic, only in which ankanam you started from.

Two Errors in Circulation

"1 cent = 6.05 ankanam = 48 square yards." A cent is 48.4 square yards. The 6.05 figure depends on 48.4 (48.4 ÷ 8 = 6.05), so a table printing both 6.05 and 48 contradicts itself.

"12.5 ankanam = 1 cent." The true figures are 6.05 (at 72 sq ft) and 12.1 (at 36 sq ft). The 12.5 rule of thumb is 12.1 rounded up, a 3.31% inflation. On a 100-cent transaction that rounding misstates the area by about 5 ankanam.

Reverse Conversion

Ankanam = Cent × 6.05

Cent Ankanam Square Feet Square Yards
1 6.05 435.6 48.4
2 12.1 871.2 96.8
5 30.25 2,178 242
10 60.5 4,356 484
25 151.25 10,890 1,210
50 302.5 21,780 2,420
100 605 43,560 4,840

435.6 square feet either way, so the Ankanam to Dismil figures apply unchanged. What differs between the two is the record each word belongs to, not the size.

Cent = Ankanam ÷ 6.05 · reverse Ankanam = Cent × 6.05

Ankanam to Acre

605 ankanam = 1 acre, exactly, at the 72 sq ft standard. At the Tirupati 36 sq ft ankanam it is 1,210 per acre.

The 605 figure is exact and it is the cleanest thing about this unit: 4,840 square yards ÷ 8 square yards = 605, with no remainder.

Formula

Acres = Ankanam ÷ 605 · Ankanam = Acres × 605

Worked Example

10 ankanam ÷ 605 = 0.016529 acres (= 720 sq ft = 80 sq yd = 1.6529 cent)

When You Actually Need This

Rarely, and that is worth saying. The ankanam is a house-site unit; the acre is a farm unit. A single plot is almost never large enough for the acre figure to be the useful one. 100 ankanam is a sixth of an acre.

Where it does matter is at the layout level: a developer converting an agricultural parcel into house sites needs to know how many plots an acre yields. At 72 sq ft, one acre is 605 ankanam, so an acre yields roughly twelve 50-ankanam plots before roads, drains and open space, and realistically eight to nine after.

Reverse Conversion

Acres Ankanam (72 sq ft) Ankanam (36 sq ft)
0.1 60.5 121
0.25 151.25 302.5
0.5 302.5 605
1 605 1,210
2 1,210 2,420
5 3,025 6,050
10 6,050 12,100

43,560 square feet either way, so the Ankanam to Killa figures apply unchanged. What differs between the two is the record each word belongs to, not the size.

Acre = Ankanam ÷ 605 · reverse Ankanam = Acre × 605

Ankanam to Square Meter

1 ankanam = 6.68901888 square metres, exactly. The square metre is India's legally defined unit of area under the Legal Metrology (National Standards) Rules, 2011, and it is the unit DTCP, HMDA and APCRDA layout approvals use.

Formula

Square Metres = Ankanam × 6.68901888

The factor is exact, not rounded: 72 sq ft × 0.09290304 m²/sq ft = 6.68901888 m² exactly.

Ankanam Square Metres
1 6.6890
2 13.3780
3 20.0671
5 33.4451
10 66.8902
20 133.7804
50 334.4509
100 668.9019
200 1,337.8038

Worked Example

50 ankanam × 6.68901888 = 334.450944 square metres

Why This Conversion Matters More Than It Looks

If you are buying in an approved layout, the layout plan states plot areas in square metres. That makes this the second document-based test for which ankanam applies:

  • Plot area ÷ ankanam count = 6.689 m² → the 72 sq ft standard
  • Plot area ÷ ankanam count = 3.345 m² → the Tirupati variant

Ankanam vs Square Metre

Ankanam Square Metre
Type Local market unit SI unit of area
Legal status in India None, not defined anywhere The prescribed unit of area
Definition Market convention, 72 or 36 sq ft Exact, universal
Appears in Conversation, listings Layout approvals, National Standards Rules

Reverse Conversion

Ankanam = Square Metres ÷ 6.68901888

Square Metres Ankanam
10 1.4950
50 7.4749
100 14.9499
200 29.8998
500 74.7494
1,000 149.4988
Ankanam Square Meter
1 6.68901888
2 13.37803776
3 20.06705664
5 33.4450944
10 66.8901888
20 133.7803776
50 334.450944
100 668.901888
200 1,337.803776
500 3,344.50944
1,000 6,689.01888

Square Meter = Ankanam × 6.68901888 · reverse Ankanam = Square Meter ÷ 6.68901888

Ankanam to Guntha

1 ankanam = 0.066116 guntha, and 1 guntha = 15.125 ankanam exactly. The guntha is 1,089 sq ft (33 ft × 33 ft), the standard agricultural sub-unit of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

Formula

Guntha = Ankanam ÷ 15.125 · Ankanam = Guntha × 15.125

Regional Context

Region Guntha definition 1 ankanam in guntha Note
Andhra Pradesh 1,089 sq ft 0.066116 Used for agricultural land alongside cent
Telangana 1,089 sq ft 0.066116 The unit Telangana's record of rights actually uses; extent is stated in acres and guntas
Karnataka 1,089 sq ft 0.066116 RTC / Pahani states acres and guntas
Maharashtra, Gujarat 1,089 sq ft 0.066116 But 7/12 extracts record ares, not guntas, see below

The Conversion That Matters If You Cross the Border

If your plot is in Telangana rather than coastal Andhra, the guntha is the unit you will meet in the record, not the cent and certainly not the ankanam. Telangana's ROR states extent in acres and guntas; Andhra's Adangal states acres and cents. A Telugu land-measurement reference puts the split plainly: ఆంధ్ర ప్రాంతంలో సెంటు, తెలంగాణలో గుంట, cent in the Andhra region, gunta in Telangana.

And a warning that carries across from Maharashtra: a guntha is not an are. A guntha is 1,089 sq ft; an are is 1,076.391 sq ft. The guntha is 1.17% larger, and 1 hectare is 98.84 gunthas, not 100. If you are reading a 7/12 extract rather than a Telangana ROR, the middle column is ares.

Reverse Conversion

Ankanam = Guntha × 15.125

Guntha Ankanam Square Feet
1 15.125 1,089
2 30.25 2,178
5 75.625 5,445
10 151.25 10,890
20 302.5 21,780
40 605 43,560
Ankanam Guntha
1 0.066116
2 0.132231
3 0.198347
5 0.330579
10 0.661157
20 1.322314
50 3.305785
100 6.61157
200 13.22314
500 33.057851
1,000 66.115702

Guntha = Ankanam ÷ 15.125 · reverse Ankanam = Guntha × 15.125

Ankanam to Hectare

1 ankanam = 0.000668901888 hectare, exactly. Going the other way, 1 hectare = 1,494.99 ankanam, a recurring value, not a round one.

Formula

Hectares = Ankanam × 0.000668901888

Ankanam vs Hectare

Ankanam Hectare
Type Local market unit Metric area unit
Size 6.689 m² 10,000 m²
Relative scale 1,494.99 ankanam = 1 hectare n/a
Legal status in India None Defined in the National Standards Rules, 2011
Typical use A single house site An agricultural holding or a whole layout

These two units are about 1,500 times apart, which tells you they are built for different jobs. You will meet the hectare in agricultural statistics, in scheme thresholds, and in digitised records, not in a plot negotiation.

Worked Example

100 ankanam × 0.000668901888 = 0.0668901888 hectares (= 668.9019 m² = 7,200 sq ft = 800 sq yd)

Read that against the acre figure for the same plot, 0.165289 acre, and the scale gap is obvious: 100 ankanam is a sixth of an acre but only a fifteenth of a hectare.

Where the Hectare Actually Appears in an Ankanam Transaction

Almost nowhere, and it is worth being clear about why. The hectare is the unit of agricultural records, scheme thresholds and statistics. The ankanam is a house-site unit. The two meet at exactly one point in a normal transaction: when agricultural land is converted into a residential layout.

At that moment the parcel changes unit twice. The seller's agricultural record states it in acres and cents (Andhra) or acres and guntas (Telangana); the land-use conversion and layout approval restate it in hectares and square metres; and the plots that come out the other side are sold in ankanam and gajam. A one-hectare parcel becomes:

1 hectare = 10,000 m² = 107,639.10 sq ft = 1,494.99 ankanam

which, after roads, drains and mandatory open space (typically 35–40% of a layout), yields somewhere around 18 to 20 plots of 50 ankanam. If a developer quotes you plot counts that imply materially more than that from a stated hectarage, ask what open space has been provided for.

Reverse Conversion

Ankanam = Hectares × 1,494.9876

Hectares Ankanam Square Feet Acres
0.1 149.4988 10,763.91 0.2471
0.25 373.7469 26,909.78 0.6178
0.5 747.4938 53,819.55 1.2355
1 1,494.9876 107,639.10 2.4711
2 2,989.9751 215,278.21 4.9421
5 7,474.9378 538,195.52 12.3553
Ankanam Hectare
1 0.000668901888
2 0.001337803776
3 0.002006705664
5 0.00334450944
10 0.00668901888
20 0.01337803776
50 0.0334450944
100 0.0668901888
200 0.1337803776
500 0.334450944
1,000 0.668901888

Hectare = Ankanam × 0.000668901888 · reverse Ankanam = Hectare ÷ 0.000668901888

Ankanam to Ground

1 ankanam = 0.03 ground, exactly, and 1 ground = 33⅓ ankanam. The ground is the Chennai and Tamil Nadu plot unit: 2,400 sq ft, from the standard 60 ft × 40 ft Madras site.

Formula

Ground = Ankanam × 0.03 · Ankanam = Ground ÷ 0.03

The Two Southern Plot Units, Compared

Ankanam and ground are the same kind of unit (a residential plot measure, used in the market rather than in records) for neighbouring states. Setting them side by side is the most natural comparison on this page.

Ankanam (Andhra) Ground (Tamil Nadu)
Square feet 72 2,400
Square yards 8 266.667
Square metres 6.689 222.967
Per acre 605 18.15
Per cent 6.05 0.1815
Typical plot 25–100 ankanam 1–2 ground
In official records No No

The ground is 33⅓ ankanam, so a one-ground Chennai site is a little over 33 ankanam, roughly a two-thirds share of a standard 50-ankanam Andhra plot. Neither unit appears in its state's record of rights; both are market conventions that survived metrication.

Ankanam = Ground × 33.3333…

Ankanam Ground
1 0.03
2 0.06
3 0.09
5 0.15
10 0.3
20 0.6
50 1.5
100 3
200 6
500 15
1,000 30

Ground = Ankanam × 0.03 · reverse Ankanam = Ground ÷ 0.03

Ankanam to Ares

1 ankanam = 0.0668901888 are, exactly. An are is 100 square metres, the metric unit that sits between the square metre and the hectare, and the one you will find in the "R" column of an Indian land record.

Formula

Ares = Ankanam × 0.0668901888 · Ankanam = Ares × 14.9499

1 are = 14.9499 ankanam. The relationship is exact in one direction and recurring in the other, because 100 m² is not a whole number of square feet.

A note on the are's standing: in version 4.01 of the BIPM's SI Brochure, published 4 June 2026, the are and the hectare were both reclassified as "historical names for decimal multiples and submultiples of SI units." Neither is deprecated, but the older statement that the hectare is "accepted for use with the SI" while the are is not has been superseded. In India both are defined in the Legal Metrology (National Standards) Rules, 2011.

Ankanam Ares
1 0.0668901888
2 0.1337803776
3 0.2006705664
5 0.334450944
10 0.668901888
20 1.337803776
50 3.34450944
100 6.68901888
200 13.37803776
500 33.4450944
1,000 66.8901888

Ares = Ankanam × 0.0668901888 · reverse Ankanam = Ares ÷ 0.0668901888

Ankanam to Square Kilometer

1 ankanam = 0.00000668901888 km², exactly. A straightforward metric conversion with essentially no property use. The two units are about 150,000 times apart.

Formula

Square Kilometres = Ankanam × 0.00000668901888

Ankanam Square Kilometres
1 0.000006689
2 0.000013378
5 0.000033445
10 0.00006689
20 0.00013378
50 0.000334451
100 0.000668902

Ankanam = Square Kilometres × 149,498.76

Ankanam Square Kilometer
1 0.00000668901888
2 0.00001337803776
3 0.00002006705664
5 0.0000334450944
10 0.0000668901888
20 0.0001337803776
50 0.000334450944
100 0.000668901888
200 0.001337803776
500 0.00334450944
1,000 0.00668901888

Square Kilometer = Ankanam × 0.00000668901888 · reverse Ankanam = Square Kilometer ÷ 0.00000668901888

Ankanam to Square Mile

1 ankanam = 0.0000025826 square miles. Included for completeness; there is no realistic use for it.

Formula

Square Miles = Ankanam ÷ 387,200

The divisor is exact: a square mile is 640 acres, and each acre is 605 ankanam, so 640 × 605 = 387,200 ankanam per square mile.

Ankanam = Square Miles × 387,200

Ankanam Square Mile
1 0.00000258
2 0.00000517
3 0.00000775
5 0.0000129
10 0.0000258
20 0.0000517
50 0.000129
100 0.000258
200 0.000517
500 0.001291
1,000 0.002583

Square Mile = Ankanam ÷ 387,200 · reverse Ankanam = Square Mile × 387,200

Ankanam to Square Inch

1 ankanam = 10,368 square inches, exactly (72 × 144).

Ankanam = Square Inches ÷ 10,368

Ankanam Square Inch
1 10,368
2 20,736
3 31,104
5 51,840
10 103,680
20 207,360
50 518,400
100 1,036,800
200 2,073,600
500 5,184,000
1,000 10,368,000

Square Inch = Ankanam × 10,368 · reverse Ankanam = Square Inch ÷ 10,368

Ankanam to Square Centimeter

1 ankanam = 66,890.1888 square centimetres, exactly.

Derivation: 6.68901888 m² × 10,000 cm²/m².

Ankanam Square Centimetres
1 66,890.19
2 133,780.38
5 334,450.94
10 668,901.89
20 1,337,803.78
50 3,344,509.44

Ankanam = Square Centimetres ÷ 66,890.1888

Ankanam Square Centimeter
1 66,890.1888
2 133,780.3776
3 200,670.5664
5 334,450.944
10 668,901.888
20 1,337,803.776
50 3,344,509.44
100 6,689,018.88
200 13,378,037.76
500 33,445,094.4
1,000 66,890,188.8

Square Centimeter = Ankanam × 66,890.1888 · reverse Ankanam = Square Centimeter ÷ 66,890.1888

Ankanam to Decimal

1 ankanam = 0.165289… decimal. The decimal is a land unit, not a decimal fraction, and it is the same size as the cent: exactly 1/100 acre, 435.6 sq ft.

Formula

Decimal = Ankanam ÷ 6.05

Decimal and Ankanam

The decimal is the working small unit of Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, Assam, Tripura and eastern Uttar Pradesh, the eastern counterpart of the southern cent. The Bihar government's revenue glossary defines it directly: "Dismil… ~435.6 sq ft, equal to 1/100 acre."

So this conversion is identical to Ankanam to Cent. If you are an Andhra buyer reading an eastern document, or vice versa, the two words describe the same area and no conversion between them is needed at all.

Ankanam = Decimal × 6.05

435.6 square feet either way, so the Ankanam to Dismil figures apply unchanged. What differs between the two is the record each word belongs to, not the size.

Decimal = Ankanam ÷ 6.05 · reverse Ankanam = Decimal × 6.05

Ankanam to Dismil

1 ankanam = 0.165289… dismil. Dismil and decimal are the same word and the same unit, 435.6 sq ft.

Dismil vs Decimal vs Cent vs Shatak

Four names, one area of 435.6 sq ft:

Form Where used
Cent Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana
Decimal Official and portal usage in Bihar and Jharkhand
Dismil / Decimil Colloquial usage in Bihar, Jharkhand, eastern UP
Shatak (শতক) Bengali

If a listing quotes dismil and a deed quotes decimal, no conversion is required, check that both figures match, because if they don't, one is a transcription error rather than a unit difference.

Ankanam Dismil
1 0.165289
2 0.330579
3 0.495868
5 0.826446
10 1.652893
20 3.305785
50 8.264463
100 16.528926
200 33.057851
500 82.644628
1,000 165.289256

Dismil = Ankanam ÷ 6.05 · reverse Ankanam = Dismil × 6.05

Ankanam to Gaj

1 ankanam = 8 square gaj, exactly. Gaj is the north Indian word for yard, used in property to mean square yard, the Hindi counterpart of the Telugu gajam.

Formula

Square Gaj = Ankanam × 8

Ankanam Square Gaj
1 8
2 16
5 40
10 80
20 160
50 400
100 800

Gaj vs Square Yard: Getting the Terminology Right

Strictly, gaj is a unit of length, a yard, descended from the Mughal *gaz. In property listings across Delhi NCR, UP, Haryana and Rajasthan the word "square" is dropped by convention, so "200 gaj" means 200 square* yards = 1,800 sq ft. The convention has hardened into a de facto standard, but it is a colloquialism, not a defined area unit.

Watch for the ambiguity in phrases like "gaj frontage," which states a running length and no area at all.

Ankanam = Square Gaj ÷ 8

9 square feet either way, so the Ankanam to Square Yard figures apply unchanged. What differs between the two is the record each word belongs to, not the size.

Gaj = Ankanam × 8 · reverse Ankanam = Gaj × 0.125

Ankanam to Perch

1 ankanam = 0.264463 perch. A square perch (also square rod or square pole) is the square of the surveyor's 16.5-foot rod: 272.25 sq ft, with 160 to the acre.

Formula

Perch = Ankanam ÷ 3.78125

The divisor is exact: 272.25 ÷ 72 = 3.78125 ankanam per perch.

Where the Perch Is Actually Used

Sri Lanka, principally, where it is the standard small land unit and is preferred over the rood and acre in property listings. It also survives as a government survey unit in Jamaica.

In India we could not verify current use. We found no government or authoritative source showing the perch in Indian land records. Indian "perch" calculators exist, but a converter having a field is not evidence that the field is used. Treat it as a legacy term in Anglo-Indian-era survey and title documents.

One thing that makes it worth knowing: the perch is exactly the same size as a standard Punjab marla, 272.25 sq ft, 160 per acre. The same unit arrived in India twice under two names (once through Mughal-era revenue practice, once through English surveying), and landed on the identical rod length.

Ankanam = Perch × 3.78125

Ankanam Perch
1 0.264463
2 0.528926
3 0.793388
5 1.322314
10 2.644628
20 5.289256
50 13.22314
100 26.446281
200 52.892562
500 132.231405
1,000 264.46281

Perch = Ankanam ÷ 3.78125 · reverse Ankanam = Perch × 3.78125

Ankanam and Other Indian Land Measurement Units

India runs three overlapping measurement systems at once, and the ankanam sits in the least formal of them. Seeing where it fits explains both why it survives and why it cannot be relied on.

Standardised metric units: square metre, are, hectare. These are the legally defined units under the Legal Metrology (National Standards) Rules, 2011. Layout approvals from DTCP, HMDA and APCRDA state plot areas in square metres.

Standardised customary units: square foot, square yard, acre, cent. Inherited from British cadastral survey, exactly defined since the 1959 international yard agreement, and identical everywhere. This is the tier that matters for an ankanam transaction, because Andhra Pradesh and Telangana register in square yards and record extent in acres and cents.

Traditional regional units: ankanam, gajam, kuncham, guntha, ground, bigha, biswa, katha, dhur, kanal, marla, nali. Inherited through conversation and older documents rather than statute. Some are stable in practice; some are not; the ankanam is among the least stable.

Common Units

Unit Type Standardised across India? Where it applies
Ankanam Traditional / market No, 72 sq ft standard, 36 sq ft in Tirupati Nellore, Tirupati, reported coastal AP
Gajam Property unit (square yard) Yes, 9 sq ft AP and Telangana, spoken; deeds and guideline values carry the same area as "square yards"
Kuncham Traditional Yes in practice, 484 sq yd Andhra Pradesh
Square Feet Standard area unit Yes Nationwide
Square Yard Standard area unit Yes Nationwide; the registration unit in AP and TS
Square Metre Metric, SI Yes, statutory Layout approvals, records, national statutes
Are / Hectare Metric Yes, statutory Land records, agricultural statistics
Acre Standard area unit Yes Nationwide, for agricultural land
Cent / Decimal / Dismil Standard, 1/100 acre Yes, exact by definition South India (cent), East India (decimal)
Guntha Traditional Yes in practice, 1,089 sq ft Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat, AP, Telangana records
Ground Traditional / market Yes in practice, 2,400 sq ft Tamil Nadu
Bigha Traditional No, 6,806 to 27,225 sq ft North and East India
Biswa Traditional No, 435.6 to 1,361.25 sq ft UP, Rajasthan, HP, Punjab
Katha Traditional No, 720 to 3,267 sq ft Bihar, WB, Assam, Jharkhand
Dhur Traditional No, 3.6 to 68.06 sq ft Bihar, Jharkhand, Tripura
Kanal / Marla Traditional Convention-dependent, four karam belts Punjab, Haryana, HP, J&K
Nali Traditional Yes in practice, 2,160 sq ft Uttarakhand hills
Pura Traditional No, inherits the local bigha Assam, Nagaland

Why the Ankanam Sits Where It Does

Three properties place it firmly in the third tier, and it is worth being precise about which:

It is undefined, not merely regional. The guntha and the ground are also traditional units, but each has one settled value that everyone in its region uses. The ankanam has two live values within a single district cluster.

It appears in no record. The guntha appears on a Karnataka RTC and a Telangana ROR. The cent appears on an Andhra Adangal. The ankanam appears on nothing.

It has no sub-unit of its own. Most traditional units sit in a ladder, bigha to biswa to biswansi, katha to dhur to dhurki, kanal to marla to sarsahi. The ankanam has none. Fractions of an ankanam are expressed in gajam, which tells you something: the market already reaches for the square yard the moment precision is needed.

The Practical Consequence

Every serious step in an Andhra property transaction happens in a unit that is not the ankanam. The negotiation may be in ankanam; the deed will be in square yards, the stamp duty computed from a guideline value per square yard, the layout approval in square metres, and the revenue record in acres and cents.

Use the ankanam to talk. Use the square yard to transact.

Which Ankanam Conversions Are Actually Useful

Before the cross-regional sections, an honest piece of editorial judgment, because a converter that presents all thirty-odd conversions as equally important is not helping you.

The ankanam is a house-site unit used in a few Andhra districts. Nobody has ever needed to convert it to a Kapurthala kanal. The conversions below are arithmetically exact and they are on this page because completeness has value, but they are not equal in usefulness:

Tier Conversions Why
You will actually use these Square yard / gajam · Square feet · Cent · Square metre The deed is in square yards, the guideline value is per square yard, the layout plan is in square metres, and the revenue record is in cents
Useful in context Acre · Guntha · Hectare · Ground Acre and hectare for a whole layout; guntha if the land is in Telangana; ground if you are comparing against Chennai
Occasionally useful Ares · Decimal / Dismil · Square inch · Square centimetre Ares appears in metric records; decimal is the same unit as cent under an eastern name
Arithmetic only Bigha · Biswa · Biswa Kacha · Katha · Dhur · Chatak · Lessa · Kanal · Marla · Square Karam · Nali · Killa · Murabba · Pura · Square mile · Square kilometre No transaction in India requires converting an Andhra house site into a Punjab kanal or an Assam pura. These exist for completeness and for the rare case of comparing holdings across states

We are not going to pad the fourth tier. Each of those sections gives you the factor, a small table, the regional caveat where one exists, and stops. That is the brief's own instruction (content depth should follow the usefulness of the conversion, not a fixed word count), and it is also simply true.

One genuine reason the fourth tier is not useless: an Andhra family inheriting or selling land in another state, or an NRI comparing holdings across two states, does occasionally need these. Where a cross-regional unit has a clean relationship to the ankanam, we flag it, because those are the ones you can actually do in your head.

Ankanam to Bigha

There is no single answer. Bigha has no national definition (its size ranges from about 6,806 to 27,225 sq ft depending on the state), so this conversion needs a location before it means anything. See the Indian Land Units by State reference for the full picture.

Regional Conversion Table

Bigha region 1 bigha (sq ft) 1 ankanam in bigha 1 bigha in ankanam
West Bengal, Assam, Jharkhand 14,400 0.005 exactly 200 exactly
Rajasthan kachha (Marwar), Gujarat 17,424 0.004132 242
UP pucca, Bihar, Rajasthan pucca 27,225 0.002645 378.125
Himachal Pradesh 8,712 0.008264 121
UP kachha (5 biswa), Uttarakhand hills 6,806.25 0.010579 94.53125
Madhya Pradesh (indicative) 12,000 0.006 166.667

The clean one: a West Bengal or Assam bigha is exactly 200 ankanam, because 14,400 ÷ 72 = 200 with no remainder. A Himachal bigha is exactly 121 ankanam. Those two you can do in your head; the rest you cannot.

Why This Conversion Is Doubly Uncertain

Both units are undefined. The ankanam has two live values (72 and 36 sq ft); the bigha has at least seven. A conversion between two unstandardised units compounds the uncertainty rather than resolving it, in the worst case, an "ankanam to bigha" figure could be wrong by a factor of eight before anyone has made an arithmetic error.

If you need this conversion, go through square feet: ankanam × 72 ÷ (local bigha in sq ft). Never take a single "1 ankanam = X bigha" figure from a converter that did not ask you two questions.

Ankanam = Bigha × (local bigha in sq ft) ÷ 72

Ankanam Bigha (UP pucca / Bihar / Rajasthan pucca)
1 0.002645
2 0.005289
3 0.007934
5 0.013223
10 0.026446
20 0.052893
50 0.132231
100 0.264463
200 0.528926
500 1.322314
1,000 2.644628

Bigha = Ankanam ÷ 378.125 (UP pucca / Bihar / Rajasthan pucca) · reverse Ankanam = Bigha × 378.125

Ankanam Bigha (9,075 sq ft)
1 0.007934
2 0.015868
3 0.023802
5 0.039669
10 0.079339
20 0.158678
50 0.396694
100 0.793388
200 1.586777
500 3.966942
1,000 7.933884

Popular Ankanam to Bigha, UP kachha (5 biswa) / Uttarakhand hills

Ankanam Bigha (6,806.25 sq ft)
1 0.010579
2 0.021157
3 0.031736
5 0.052893
10 0.105785
20 0.21157
50 0.528926
100 1.057851
200 2.115702
500 5.289256
1,000 10.578512

Popular Ankanam to Bigha, Rajasthan kachha / Gujarat vigha / Uttarakhand Terai

Ankanam Bigha (17,424 sq ft)
1 0.004132
2 0.008264
3 0.012397
5 0.020661
10 0.041322
20 0.082645
50 0.206612
100 0.413223
200 0.826446
500 2.066116
1,000 4.132231
Ankanam Bigha (12,000 sq ft)
1 0.006
2 0.012
3 0.018
5 0.03
10 0.06
20 0.12
50 0.3
100 0.6
200 1.2
500 3
1,000 6

Popular Ankanam to Bigha, West Bengal / Assam / Jharkhand

Ankanam Bigha (14,400 sq ft)
1 0.005
2 0.01
3 0.015
5 0.025
10 0.05
20 0.1
50 0.25
100 0.5
200 1
500 2.5
1,000 5

Popular Ankanam to Bigha, Himachal Pradesh / Haryana Rohtak belt

Ankanam Bigha (8,712 sq ft)
1 0.008264
2 0.016529
3 0.024793
5 0.041322
10 0.082645
20 0.165289
50 0.413223
100 0.826446
200 1.652893
500 4.132231
1,000 8.264463

Popular Ankanam to Bigha, Punjab / west Haryana

Ankanam Bigha (21,780 sq ft)
1 0.003306
2 0.006612
3 0.009917
5 0.016529
10 0.033058
20 0.066116
50 0.165289
100 0.330579
200 0.661157
500 1.652893
1,000 3.305785
Ankanam Bigha (8,100 sq ft)
1 0.008889
2 0.017778
3 0.026667
5 0.044444
10 0.088889
20 0.177778
50 0.444444
100 0.888889
200 1.777778
500 4.444444
1,000 8.888889

Ankanam to Biswa

Regional. 20 biswa = 1 bigha wherever the unit is used, so the biswa follows the local bigha.

Regional Conversion Table

Region 1 biswa (sq ft) 1 ankanam in biswa 1 biswa in ankanam
Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan (pucca) 1,361.25 0.052893 18.90625
Himachal Pradesh 435.6 0.165289 6.05
Rajasthan kachha (Marwar) 871.2 0.082645 12.1
Punjab / Haryana (old records) 453.75 0.158678 6.302083

A neat coincidence worth noting: the Himachal biswa is exactly one cent (435.6 sq ft), so 1 HP biswa = 6.05 ankanam, the same factor as the cent.

One useful fact if you meet this unit: within Uttar Pradesh the biswa is constant at 1,361.25 sq ft. What varies between eastern and western UP is how many biswa the local trade calls a "bigha." So a UP figure quoted in biswa is unambiguous in a way a UP figure quoted in bigha is not.

1,361.25 square feet either way, so the Ankanam to Katha figures apply unchanged. What differs between the two is the record each word belongs to, not the size.

Biswa = Ankanam ÷ 18.90625 (UP / Rajasthan pucca) · reverse Ankanam = Biswa × 18.90625

871.2 square feet either way, so the Ankanam to Biswa Kacha, Rajasthan kachha reading figures apply unchanged. What differs between the two is the record each word belongs to, not the size.

Popular Ankanam to Biswa, Punjab / Haryana old records

453.75 square feet either way, so the Ankanam to Biswa Kacha figures apply unchanged. What differs between the two is the record each word belongs to, not the size.

435.6 square feet either way, so the Ankanam to Dismil figures apply unchanged. What differs between the two is the record each word belongs to, not the size.

Ankanam to Biswa Kacha

Regional and disputed: two incompatible definitions are in circulation. Establish which one your document uses before converting.

Definition A: the revenue meaning. Kachha means "lesser." A kachha biswa is 1/20 of a kachha bigha, and therefore smaller than a pucca biswa. In the Punjab and Haryana old system that gives 453.75 sq ft, exactly one-third of the 1,361.25 sq ft pucca biswa, and independently derivable as 15 square karam.

Definition B: the property-portal meaning. Several major Indian portals define 1 bigha = 10 biswa kacha, making one biswa kacha 2,700 sq ft, larger than a pucca biswa. This inverts the meaning of kachha and no revenue source supports it.

Regional Conversion Table

Definition 1 biswa kacha (sq ft) 1 ankanam in biswa kacha Reliability
Punjab / Haryana revenue 453.75 0.158678 Corroborated by two independent chains
Rajasthan Marwar 871.2 0.082645 Consistent with the kachha bigha
UP property portals 2,700 0.026667 Contradicts the meaning of kachha

Popular Conversion: Punjab / Haryana revenue definition

A quick test that catches the error: a kachha unit should always be smaller than the corresponding pucca unit. If a source makes it larger, it has inverted the definition.

Ankanam Biswa Kacha (Punjab / Haryana revenue)
1 0.158678
2 0.317355
3 0.476033
5 0.793388
10 1.586777
20 3.173554
50 7.933884
100 15.867769
200 31.735537
500 79.338843
1,000 158.677686

Biswa Kacha = Ankanam × 96/605 (Punjab / Haryana revenue definition) · reverse Ankanam = Biswa Kacha × 605/96

Ankanam Biswa Kacha (871.2 sq ft)
1 0.082645
2 0.165289
3 0.247934
5 0.413223
10 0.826446
20 1.652893
50 4.132231
100 8.264463
200 16.528926
500 41.322314
1,000 82.644628

Ankanam to Katha

Regional: and the West Bengal relationship is exact and memorable: 1 katha = 10 ankanam.

Regional Conversion Table

Region 1 katha (sq ft) 1 ankanam in katha 1 katha in ankanam
West Bengal, Jharkhand 720 0.1 exactly 10 exactly
Assam 2,880 0.025 exactly 40 exactly
Bihar (Patna standard) 1,361.25 0.052893 18.90625
Bihar (Chhapra) 1,742.4 0.041322 24.2
Bihar (Bettiah) 3,267 0.022039 45.375

Both eastern kathas divide the ankanam exactly (10 ankanam to a Bengal katha, 40 to an Assam katha), which is a consequence of 72 dividing cleanly into 720 and 2,880.

Note the structural oddity of the Assam katha: it is four times the Bengal katha even though both states use a 14,400 sq ft bigha, because in Assam 5 katha make a bigha, not 20.

The Bihar government's own revenue glossary concedes that the katha "varies from region to region in Bihar," so use the district figure, not a state figure.

Ankanam Katha (Bihar state standard)
1 0.052893
2 0.105785
3 0.158678
5 0.264463
10 0.528926
20 1.057851
50 2.644628
100 5.289256
200 10.578512
500 26.446281
1,000 52.892562

Katha = Ankanam ÷ 18.90625 (Bihar state standard) · reverse Ankanam = Katha × 18.90625

Popular Ankanam to Katha, West Bengal / Jharkhand

Ankanam Katha (720 sq ft)
1 0.1
2 0.2
3 0.3
5 0.5
10 1
20 2
50 5
100 10
200 20
500 50
1,000 100
Ankanam Katha (2,880 sq ft)
1 0.025
2 0.05
3 0.075
5 0.125
10 0.25
20 0.5
50 1.25
100 2.5
200 5
500 12.5
1,000 25
Ankanam Katha (1,742.4 sq ft)
1 0.041322
2 0.082645
3 0.123967
5 0.206612
10 0.413223
20 0.826446
50 2.066116
100 4.132231
200 8.264463
500 20.661157
1,000 41.322314
Ankanam Katha (1,901.25 sq ft)
1 0.03787
2 0.07574
3 0.113609
5 0.189349
10 0.378698
20 0.757396
50 1.893491
100 3.786982
200 7.573964
500 18.934911
1,000 37.869822
Ankanam Katha (3,267 sq ft)
1 0.022039
2 0.044077
3 0.066116
5 0.110193
10 0.220386
20 0.440771
50 1.101928
100 2.203857
200 4.407713
500 11.019284
1,000 22.038567

Ankanam to Dhur

Regional, and this unit carries the widest divergence in India. A Bihar dhur is 68.0625 sq ft, a Tripura dhur is 3.6 sq ft.

Regional Conversion Table

Region 1 dhur (sq ft) 1 ankanam in dhur
Bihar / Jharkhand 68.0625 1.057851
Tripura 3.6 20 exactly
Nepal Terai 182.25 0.395062

One ankanam is almost exactly one Bihar dhur, 1.0579, about 5.8% larger. That near-coincidence is the only reason this conversion is interesting.

At the Tripura value it is exactly 20 dhur to the ankanam, because 72 ÷ 3.6 = 20.

Ankanam Dhur (Bihar / Jharkhand (Patna chain))
1 1.057851
2 2.115702
3 3.173554
5 5.289256
10 10.578512
20 21.157025
50 52.892562
100 105.785124
200 211.570248
500 528.92562
1,000 1,057.85124

Dhur = Ankanam ÷ 0.9453125 (Bihar / Jharkhand (Patna chain)) · reverse Ankanam = Dhur × 0.9453125

Ankanam Dhur (3.6 sq ft)
1 20
2 40
3 60
5 100
10 200
20 400
50 1,000
100 2,000
200 4,000
500 10,000
1,000 20,000

Ankanam to Chatak

1 ankanam = 1.6 chatak, exactly. The chatak is the smallest working unit of the West Bengal ladder: 45 sq ft, with 16 chatak to a katha.

Note the tidy pair: 10 ankanam = 16 chatak = 1 West Bengal katha = 720 sq ft. Two regional units meeting exactly, by coincidence of the shared foot.

Ankanam = Chatak ÷ 1.6

Ankanam Chatak
1 1.6
2 3.2
3 4.8
5 8
10 16
20 32
50 80
100 160
200 320
500 800
1,000 1,600

Chatak = Ankanam × 1.6 · reverse Ankanam = Chatak × 0.625

Ankanam to Lessa

1 ankanam = 0.5 lessa, exactly, or 2 ankanam = 1 lessa. The lessa (also lecha) is Assam's smallest unit: 144 sq ft, a 12 ft × 12 ft square, with 20 lessa to a katha.

The simplest cross-regional relationship on this page: the Assam lessa is exactly two Andhra ankanam.

Ankanam = Lessa × 2

Ankanam Lessa
1 0.5
2 1
3 1.5
5 2.5
10 5
20 10
50 25
100 50
200 100
500 250
1,000 500

Lessa = Ankanam × 0.5 · reverse Ankanam = Lessa × 2

Ankanam to Kanal

1 ankanam = 0.013223 kanal in the standard system. The kanal is the principal unit of the Punjab, Haryana, Himachal and J&K revenue records: 5,445 sq ft, with 8 to the acre.

1 kanal = 75.625 ankanam.

Belt caveat. The kanal is defined as 20 marla, and a marla as 9 square karam, so the whole system floats on the local karam length. Four are in use: 66 in (standard, kanal 5,445 sq ft), 60 in (Majha, 4,500), 57.5 in (Doaba, 4,132.81) and 54 in (Kapurthala, 3,645). The table above uses the standard. In Amritsar 1 kanal is 62.5 ankanam; in Kapurthala, 50.625.

Ankanam = Kanal × 75.625 (standard belt)

Ankanam Kanal (Standard (66-inch karam))
1 0.013223
2 0.026446
3 0.039669
5 0.066116
10 0.132231
20 0.264463
50 0.661157
100 1.322314
200 2.644628
500 6.61157
1,000 13.22314

Kanal = Ankanam ÷ 75.625 (Standard (66-inch karam)) · reverse Ankanam = Kanal × 75.625

Ankanam Kanal (4,500 sq ft)
1 0.016
2 0.032
3 0.048
5 0.08
10 0.16
20 0.32
50 0.8
100 1.6
200 3.2
500 8
1,000 16
Ankanam Kanal (4,132.8125 sq ft)
1 0.017422
2 0.034843
3 0.052265
5 0.087108
10 0.174216
20 0.348431
50 0.871078
100 1.742155
200 3.48431
500 8.710775
1,000 17.42155
Ankanam Kanal (3,645 sq ft)
1 0.019753
2 0.039506
3 0.059259
5 0.098765
10 0.197531
20 0.395062
50 0.987654
100 1.975309
200 3.950617
500 9.876543
1,000 19.753086

Ankanam to Marla

1 ankanam = 0.264463 marla, and 1 marla = 3.78125 ankanam in the standard system. A standard marla is 272.25 sq ft, the same size as a square perch.

Belt caveat. Standard 272.25 sq ft (Malwa, urban Punjab, Ludhiana, Mohali, Haryana, J&K, most of HP) · Majha 225 sq ft (Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Ferozepur) · Doaba 206.64 sq ft (Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur; HP Kangra belt) · Kapurthala 182.25 sq ft.

A correction worth carrying: one widely-copied reference states that "in India, the marla was standardized to 25 square yards" (225 sq ft). That is wrong as a blanket claim. Indian revenue records use 30.25 sq yd (272.25 sq ft); 225 sq ft is the Majha regional variant.

Ankanam = Marla × 3.78125 (standard belt)

272.25 square feet either way, so the Ankanam to Perch figures apply unchanged. What differs between the two is the record each word belongs to, not the size.

Marla = Ankanam ÷ 3.78125 (Standard (66-inch karam)) · reverse Ankanam = Marla × 3.78125

Ankanam Marla (225 sq ft)
1 0.32
2 0.64
3 0.96
5 1.6
10 3.2
20 6.4
50 16
100 32
200 64
500 160
1,000 320
Ankanam Marla (206.640625 sq ft)
1 0.348431
2 0.696862
3 1.045293
5 1.742155
10 3.48431
20 6.96862
50 17.42155
100 34.8431
200 69.6862
500 174.215501
1,000 348.431002
Ankanam Marla (182.25 sq ft)
1 0.395062
2 0.790123
3 1.185185
5 1.975309
10 3.950617
20 7.901235
50 19.753086
100 39.506173
200 79.012346
500 197.530864
1,000 395.061728

225 square feet either way, so the Ankanam to Marla, Majha belt (60-inch karam) figures apply unchanged. What differs between the two is the record each word belongs to, not the size.

Ankanam to Square Karam

1 ankanam = 2.380165 square karam in the standard system. A square karam (also sarsahi) is the square of the surveyor's rod: 30.25 sq ft where the karam is 66 inches.

Belt caveat. 66 in → 30.25 sq ft (standard) · 60 in → 25 sq ft (Majha) · 57.5 in → 22.9601 sq ft (Doaba) · 54 in → 20.25 sq ft (Kapurthala). Nine square karam make one marla in every system. That ratio is fixed; only the absolute size moves.

Ankanam = Square Karam ÷ 2.380165

Ankanam Square Karam (Standard (66-inch karam))
1 2.380165
2 4.760331
3 7.140496
5 11.900826
10 23.801653
20 47.603306
50 119.008264
100 238.016529
200 476.033058
500 1,190.082645
1,000 2,380.165289

Square Karam = Ankanam × 288/121 (Standard (66-inch karam)) · reverse Ankanam = Square Karam × 121/288

Ankanam Square Karam (25 sq ft)
1 2.88
2 5.76
3 8.64
5 14.4
10 28.8
20 57.6
50 144
100 288
200 576
500 1,440
1,000 2,880
Ankanam Square Karam (22.960069 sq ft)
1 3.135879
2 6.271758
3 9.407637
5 15.679395
10 31.35879
20 62.71758
50 156.793951
100 313.587902
200 627.175803
500 1,567.939509
1,000 3,135.879017
Ankanam Square Karam (20.25 sq ft)
1 3.555556
2 7.111111
3 10.666667
5 17.777778
10 35.555556
20 71.111111
50 177.777778
100 355.555556
200 711.111111
500 1,777.777778
1,000 3,555.555556

Ankanam to Nali

1 ankanam = 0.033333 nali, exactly one-thirtieth. The nali is the terraced-land unit of the Uttarakhand hills: 2,160 sq ft, a 60 ft × 36 ft terrace.

1 nali = 30 ankanam, exactly (2,160 ÷ 72). The nali is stable at 2,160 sq ft across sources, unlike the hill bigha it is sometimes mapped to.

Ankanam = Nali × 30

Ankanam Nali
1 0.033333
2 0.066667
3 0.1
5 0.166667
10 0.333333
20 0.666667
50 1.666667
100 3.333333
200 6.666667
500 16.666667
1,000 33.333333

Nali = Ankanam ÷ 30 · reverse Ankanam = Nali × 30

Ankanam to Killa

1 ankanam = 0.001653 killa. A killa is simply the Punjab and Haryana word for an acre (43,560 sq ft), so this is the same conversion as Ankanam to Acre: 605 ankanam = 1 killa.

A historical footnote: in the earlier square canal-colony layout a killa was 220 × 220 ft = 48,400 sq ft = 1.111 acres, which would be 672.22 ankanam. The surviving rectangular layout makes it exactly one acre.

Ankanam Killa
1 0.001653
2 0.003306
3 0.004959
5 0.008264
10 0.016529
20 0.033058
50 0.082645
100 0.165289
200 0.330579
500 0.826446
1,000 1.652893

Killa = Ankanam ÷ 605 · reverse Ankanam = Killa × 605

Ankanam to Murabba

1 ankanam = 0.0000661157 murabba. A murabba is the Punjab canal-colony block of 25 acres = 15,125 ankanam, about four thousand times a house site.

Ankanam = Murabba × 15,125

Ankanam Murabba (Punjab canal colony)
1 0.0000661
2 0.000132
3 0.000198
5 0.000331
10 0.000661
20 0.001322
50 0.003306
100 0.006612
200 0.013223
500 0.033058
1,000 0.066116

Murabba = Ankanam ÷ 15,125 (Punjab canal colony) · reverse Ankanam = Murabba × 15,125

Ankanam Murabba (680,625 sq ft)
1 0.000106
2 0.000212
3 0.000317
5 0.000529
10 0.001058
20 0.002116
50 0.005289
100 0.010579
200 0.021157
500 0.052893
1,000 0.105785

Ankanam to Pura

1 ankanam = 0.00125 pura, exactly, or 800 ankanam = 1 pura. Pura is an informal Assam and Nagaland unit for large holdings: 4 bigha = 57,600 sq ft ≈ 1.32 acres.

Reliability warning. No instrument defines the pura, though six judgments state its four-bigha ratio, the earliest a Supreme Court decision of 1961. It is a rural and older-record usage with no formal role in the Indian property market, and its absolute size inherits whichever bigha is local. The 57,600 sq ft figure is the best-attested and is what the table uses; a 108,900 sq ft figure also circulates but appears to be a converter default rather than a documented regional usage.

Ankanam = Pura × 800

Ankanam Pura
1 0.00125
2 0.0025
3 0.00375
5 0.00625
10 0.0125
20 0.025
50 0.0625
100 0.125
200 0.25
500 0.625
1,000 1.25

Pura = Ankanam × 0.00125 · reverse Ankanam = Pura × 800

Converting Prices Quoted per Ankanam

Land in Nellore and Tirupati is advertised at a price per ankanam, and often with no area figure attached at all. That is where the unit's ambiguity turns into money.

The Inversion Rule

Price per unit moves inversely to the size of the unit. A per-ankanam price on the 36 sq ft variant buys you half as much land as the same per-ankanam price on the 72 sq ft standard, so the "cheaper-looking" quote can be twice the price.

Price per sq ft = Price per ankanam ÷ 72 (or ÷ 36 for the Tirupati variant)

Price per sq yd = Price per sq ft × 9 · Price per acre = Price per sq ft × 43,560

Always reduce to price per square yard. It is the unit your deed will be written in and the unit the guideline value is quoted in, so it is the only figure you can check against a government number.

Real Market Rates Converted

Rates observed in live Andhra listings, converted both ways:

Quoted If 72 sq ft If 36 sq ft
per sq ft per sq yd per acre per sq ft per sq yd
₹20,000 per ankanam ₹277.78 ₹2,500 ₹1.21 crore ₹555.56 ₹5,000
₹32,000 per ankanam ₹444.44 ₹4,000 ₹1.94 crore ₹888.89 ₹8,000
₹85,000 per ankanam ₹1,180.56 ₹10,625 ₹5.14 crore ₹2,361.11 ₹21,250

Read the two right-hand columns. The same quoted price is exactly twice as expensive per square yard if the seller is using the Tirupati ankanam. On a 100-ankanam plot at ₹32,000 per ankanam, a real advertised rate, you pay ₹32 lakh either way, but you receive 800 square yards or 400 square yards. Nothing in the quoted price tells you which.

The One Question That Removes the Risk

"What is the price per square yard, and what is the total area in square yards?"

Both answers will appear on the registered deed, so a seller has no reason to withhold them. If the per-ankanam figure and the per-square-yard figure do not reconcile at 8 sq yd per ankanam, you have found the Tirupati variant, or an error.

Checking Against the Guideline Value

AP and Telangana publish market-value (guideline) rates per square yard for open plots and house sites. Once you have your price per square yard, you can compare it directly with the notified rate for that survey number. Stamp duty is charged on the higher of the transaction value and the notified value, and it is calculated from the square-yard figure in the deed, never from an ankanam count.

How to Calculate Land Area in Ankanam

If You Have the Dimensions in Feet

Length × Width = Square Feet

Square Feet ÷ 72 = Ankanam (or ÷ 36 for the Tirupati variant)

Worked Example

A plot measuring 40 ft × 90 ft:

40 × 90 = 3,600 sq ft 3,600 ÷ 72 = 50 ankanam (= 400 square yards = 8.2645 cent = 0.082645 acre)

A plot measuring 30 ft × 60 ft:

30 × 60 = 1,800 sq ft 1,800 ÷ 72 = 25 ankanam (= 200 square yards)

If You Have the Area in Square Yards

Square Yards ÷ 8 = Ankanam, the easiest route, and the one that matches your deed.

If You Have the Area in Square Metres

Square Metres ÷ 6.68901888 = Ankanam, use this when working from an approved layout plan.

Irregular Land

Length × width works for a rectangle and nothing else. Layout plots are usually rectangular, which is why the ankanam works as a plot unit at all, but corner plots, plots on a curved road and plots abutting a nala frequently are not.

Where the boundary is irregular you need the approved layout plan (which states the plot area directly), a licensed surveyor with a total station, or the FMB / tippan sketch from the mandal revenue office. Do not derive the area from two frontage measurements and assume the back matches.

Which Figure Governs

If your own calculation disagrees with the layout plan or the deed, the deed is what you are buying and the layout approval is what the authority sanctioned. A discrepancy under about 1% is measurement noise; above that, resolve it before registration rather than after, because the mutation will transfer the area the record holds, not the area you measured.

Ankanam vs Acre

Feature Ankanam Acre
Type Local market unit Standardised area unit
Defined by Nothing, no statute, record or gazette The 1959 international yard agreement
Size 72 sq ft (or 36 in Tirupati) 4,046.8564224 m², identical everywhere
Varies by location? Yes, two live values No
Appears in government records? No Yes; AP Adangal states acres and cents
Typical use A single house site An agricultural holding or a whole layout
Conversion 605 per acre, once the ankanam is established n/a

The two units are about six hundred times apart and they answer different questions. The acre describes what a farmer owns; the ankanam describes what a family builds on. You will use the acre figure once, when the layout was carved out of agricultural land, and the ankanam figure for everything after.

Establish the location first. "605 ankanam per acre" is correct for the standard ankanam and wrong by a factor of two for Tirupati, where it is 1,210.

Ankanam vs Square Feet

Feature Ankanam Square Feet
Type Local market unit Standard area unit
Regional variation Yes, 72 or 36 sq ft None
Property usage Nellore, Tirupati, reported coastal AP Universal
In records and contracts No Occasionally; construction and carpet area
Conversion 72 sq ft (or 36) n/a

Square feet is the neutral ground between a local seller and an outside buyer. It is what construction is costed in, what an apartment's carpet area is stated in, and what anyone from outside the district will understand without asking a second question.

When to insist on square feet, or better, square yards. Any time the counterparty is not local, any time the plot is in Tirupati or Chittoor, and any time a price is quoted per ankanam without an area. Square yards is the better ask, because it is what the deed will say.

Ankanam vs Gajam

This is the comparison most Andhra buyers actually need, because both units are Telugu, both are used in the same conversations, and only one of them is safe.

Feature Ankanam Gajam
What it is A traditional bay count The square yard
Size 72 sq ft, or 36 9 sq ft, always
Regional variation Yes None
The area in the registered deed No Yes, but written as "square yards"
The area in the guideline value tables No Yes, but written as "per square yard"
Relationship 1 ankanam = 8 gajam n/a

Use gajam in writing; use ankanam only in conversation. They differ by a clean factor of eight, so nothing is lost in translation, but one of them is the unit your transaction is actually conducted in, and the other is the one that can mean two different things.

A 50-ankanam plot is 400 gajam. If the seller says 50 ankanam and the deed says 200 gajam, you are not looking at a discount. You are looking at the Tirupati ankanam.

Ankanam Conversion Accuracy and Rounding

Where the Uncertainty Actually Lives

For most units, conversion error comes from rounding. For the ankanam it does not. The arithmetic is exact; the definition is not. No amount of decimal precision fixes a page that used 72 when the plot was measured at 36.

That reframes what "accuracy" means here:

Source of error Size of error Fixable by?
Using 72 instead of 36 sq ft 100% Reading the deed
Using "12.5 ankanam = 1 cent" 3.31% Using 12.1 or 6.05
Rounding 6.68901888 to 6.689 m² 0.0003% More decimals
Rounding 0.165289 cent to 0.1653 0.007% More decimals

The first row is three hundred times larger than the rest combined. Get the definition right and the rounding stops mattering.

  1. State which ankanam was applied, above the result, every time. A converter that shows a number without naming its standard is not showing you an answer.
  2. Compute with the exact factor, round only the output.
  3. Mark recurring values. 0.165289… cent is honest; 0.1653 alone implies a precision the value does not have.
  4. Do not display more precision than the definition supports. Six decimal places on a figure derived from an undefined unit is false confidence, and false confidence is worse than a rounded number, because it signals certainty that does not exist.
  5. Never imply legal precision. A conversion is arithmetic on a stated assumption. It is not a survey and it establishes nothing.

Exact and Recurring, Listed

Exact: sq ft, sq yd, gajam, gaj, sq m, sq in, sq cm, are, hectare, sq km, ground, chatak, lessa, katha (WB and Assam), bigha (WB and Assam), pura.

Recurring: cent, decimal, dismil, acre, killa, guntha, perch, marla, kanal, square karam, nali, murabba, sq mile, and the Bihar and UP regional units.

Reverse Ankanam Conversions

Common Reverse Conversions

From Formula Exact?
Square Feet Sq Ft ÷ 72 Exact
Square Yard / Gajam / Gaj Sq Yd ÷ 8 Exact
Square Metre Sq M ÷ 6.68901888 Exact
Square Inch Sq In ÷ 10,368 Exact
Square Centimetre Sq Cm ÷ 66,890.1888 Exact
Are Ares × 14.9499 Recurring
Hectare Hectares × 1,494.9876 Recurring
Cent / Decimal / Dismil × 6.05 Exact
Acre / Killa × 605 Exact
Guntha × 15.125 Exact
Ground × 33.3333… Recurring
Perch / Marla (standard) × 3.78125 Exact
Kanal (standard) × 75.625 Exact
Square Karam (standard) ÷ 2.380165 Recurring
Chatak ÷ 1.6 Exact
Lessa × 2 Exact
Nali × 30 Exact
Katha (WB) × 10 Exact
Katha (Assam) × 40 Exact
Bigha (WB / Assam) × 200 Exact
Pura (Assam) × 800 Exact
Murabba × 15,125 Exact
Bigha, Biswa, Katha (Bihar), Dhur Depends on the regional definition n/a

Note how many of the reverse factors are clean whole numbers, 6.05, 605, 15.125, 3.78125, 75.625, 2, 10, 30, 40, 200, 800, 15,125. That is the 72 = 2³ × 3² effect again: it is far easier to convert into ankanam than out of it.

The general reverse formula for any unit whose square-foot size you know:

Ankanam = (number of units × size of unit in sq ft) ÷ 72

Practical Ankanam Conversion Examples

Example 1: Ankanam to Square Feet

5 ankanam × 72 = 360 sq ft

Example 2: Ankanam to Acre

10 ankanam ÷ 605 = 0.016529 acres

Example 3: Ankanam to Square Metre

20 ankanam × 6.68901888 = 133.7803776 sq m

Example 4: Square Feet to Ankanam

Given 10,000 sq ft:

10,000 ÷ 72 = 138.8889 ankanam

Example 5: A Real Nellore Transaction

A seller offers "50 ankanam at ₹85,000 per ankanam."

Area: 50 × 72 = 3,600 sq ft = 400 square yards Total: 50 × 85,000 = ₹42,50,000 Per square yard: 42,50,000 ÷ 400 = ₹10,625 Per square foot: ₹1,180.56

Now check that ₹10,625 per square yard against the notified guideline value for that survey number. That comparison is only possible because the price was reduced to square yards. The per-ankanam figure cannot be compared with any government number at all.

Example 6: The Same Offer in Tirupati

A seller offers "100 ankanam at ₹32,000 per ankanam."

If it is the 72 sq ft ankanam: 100 × 72 = 7,200 sq ft = 800 square yards · ₹32,00,000 total · ₹4,000 per square yard

If it is the 36 sq ft Tirupati ankanam: 100 × 36 = 3,600 sq ft = 400 square yards · ₹32,00,000 total · ₹8,000 per square yard

Same words, same money, half the land, and a doubled rate per square yard. The only way to tell is the deed or the layout plan.

Example 7: An Out-of-State Buyer in Tirupati: the Whole Problem, Worked

A buyer based in Hyderabad is shown a plot in a Tirupati layout. The listing says "100 ankanam, ₹32,000 per ankanam." Nothing else: no square feet, no square yards, no dimensions.

What they assume. Every national converter they check says 72 sq ft. So: 100 × 72 = 7,200 sq ft = 800 square yards, at ₹32,00,000 total, which works out to ₹4,000 per square yard. Against Tirupati guideline values for a layout plot, that reads as a fair price. They proceed.

What they ask, because this page told them to. "What is the total area in square yards, and what is the price per square yard?"

The answer they get. 400 square yards. The agent is not concealing anything, in Tirupati the ankanam is 36 sq ft, and locally everyone knows that.

What actually changed. The total price is the same ₹32,00,000. The land is half what they assumed. The real rate is ₹8,000 per square yard, not ₹4,000, and that is the figure to compare against the guideline value and against other Tirupati layouts.

How they confirm it before paying anything. Three independent checks, any one of which settles it:

Check Standard ankanam Tirupati ankanam
Deed or agreement: square yards ÷ ankanam count 800 ÷ 100 = 8 sq yd 400 ÷ 100 = 4 sq yd
Layout plan: square metres ÷ ankanam count 6.689 m² 3.345 m²
Plot dimensions: length × width ÷ ankanam count 7,200 ÷ 100 = 72 sq ft 3,600 ÷ 100 = 36 sq ft

What it would have cost to skip the question. Nothing, if they had walked away. But had they signed on the assumption of 800 square yards and discovered 400 at registration, they would have been arguing about the interpretation of a word with no document on their side, because the listing never stated an area, and the ankanam is defined nowhere they could point to. The deed would have said 400 square yards and it would have been correct.

The lesson, in one line: the ankanam was never the problem. Quoting a price against an area that was never stated is the problem.

Example 8: Working Backwards From a Deed

Your deed says 320 square yards. The broker called it 40 ankanam.

320 ÷ 40 = 8 square yards per ankanam → the 72 sq ft standard. Confirmed.

Had the deed said 160 square yards for the same 40 ankanam, that would be 4 sq yd each, the Tirupati variant.

Important Things to Check Before Converting Ankanam

  1. Establish which ankanam applies: 72 or 36 sq ft. Everything else on this page is arithmetic; this is the only step that carries real risk.
  2. Get the area in square yards, in writing. Divide by the ankanam count: 8 means the standard, 4 means the Tirupati variant.
  3. Cross-check against the layout plan. DTCP, HMDA and APCRDA approvals state plot area in square metres. 6.689 m² per ankanam confirms the standard.
  4. Do not accept a rate per ankanam without an area. A price with no area attached cannot be compared with anything, including the guideline value.
  5. Remember the ankanam is in no record. Your deed will be in square yards, the guideline value per square yard, the Adangal or 1-B in acres and cents. Convert from the document, not from a broker's figure.
  6. Ignore the "12.5 ankanam = 1 cent" shortcut. It is 6.05 at 72 sq ft and 12.1 at 36 sq ft.
  7. For a conversion into a northern or eastern unit, establish both definitions. Converting an undefined unit into another undefined unit compounds the uncertainty; go through square feet.
  8. Confirm the area that will be mutated. The mutation transfers the area the record holds, not the area the deed recites. Resolve any gap before registration.
  9. Treat every online conversion as informational. For the transaction itself, use the registered documents, the approved layout and, where the value justifies it, a licensed survey.

Frequently Asked Questions About Ankanam Conversion

What is Ankanam?

Ankanam (Telugu అంకణము, Kannada ಅಂಕಣ) is a traditional land-area unit used for residential plots in parts of Andhra Pradesh. In market usage it is 72 square feet (8 square yards), though 36 square feet is used around Tirupati.

Originally it is not a land unit at all: both the standard Telugu and Kannada dictionaries define it as the space between two pillars or beams, an architectural bay, with no fixed size. That is why the land unit never standardised.

Where is Ankanam used?

Verified market usage in Nellore (72 sq ft) and Tirupati (36 sq ft), with Chittoor reported by a local source. Coastal Andhra (Guntur, Vijayawada) is named by secondary sources without local evidence.

It is used for residential plots and layouts, not agricultural land. Andhra agricultural land is recorded in acres and cents.

Telangana and Karnataka claims are weak. Telangana's records use acres and guntas, and a Telugu reference states the split directly: cent in the Andhra region, gunta in Telangana. For Karnataka, a Kannada-language search found no use of ಅಂಕಣ as a land unit at all. Kerala's own revenue unit list contains no ankanam.

How many square feet are in 1 Ankanam?

72 square feet at the standard, 36 square feet in Tirupati. Ankanam × 72 = Square Feet.

How many square yards are in 1 Ankanam?

8 square yards, which is 8 gajam. This is the most useful conversion on the page, because AP and Telangana register property in square yards. At the Tirupati variant it is 4.

How many acres are in 1 Ankanam?

0.001653 acres, or 605 ankanam to the acre, exact, because 4,840 square yards ÷ 8 = 605. At the Tirupati 36 sq ft ankanam it is 1,210 per acre.

How many cents are in 1 Ankanam?

0.165289… cent, and 1 cent = 6.05 ankanam exactly. At the Tirupati variant, 12.1 ankanam per cent.

Ignore the "12.5 ankanam = 1 cent" rule of thumb you will hear locally. It is 12.1 rounded up, inflating by 3.31%.

How many square metres are in 1 Ankanam?

6.68901888 square metres, exactly. This is the figure to use against an approved layout plan, which states plot areas in square metres.

Is Ankanam the same as Acre?

No, and they differ in kind as well as size. The acre is a standardised unit with an exact international definition, identical everywhere. The ankanam is a local market convention with no definition in any statute or record, and two live values. One acre is 605 ankanam.

Is Ankanam the same as Square Feet?

No. Square feet is a standard unit with one value everywhere. Ankanam is a local unit worth 72 sq ft in most of Andhra and 36 sq ft in Tirupati.

Is Ankanam the same everywhere in India?

No: and it is not even the same everywhere in Andhra Pradesh. Two values are in current commercial use within one district cluster: 72 sq ft in Nellore and 36 sq ft in Tirupati. A "100 ankanam" plot is 800 square yards in one and 400 in the other.

How do I convert Ankanam to Square Feet?

Ankanam × 72 = Square Feet (or × 36 for the Tirupati variant).

How do I convert Square Feet to Ankanam?

Square Feet ÷ 72 = Ankanam.

How do I convert Ankanam to Acre?

Ankanam ÷ 605 = Acres at the standard; ÷ 1,210 at the Tirupati variant.

How do I convert Ankanam to Bigha?

Only after establishing the local bigha, which ranges from about 6,806 to 27,225 sq ft. Go through square feet: ankanam × 72 ÷ (local bigha in sq ft). The one clean case is West Bengal and Assam, where 1 bigha = exactly 200 ankanam.

Can Ankanam be converted to Biswa?

Yes, once both definitions are established. At the UP pucca biswa (1,361.25 sq ft), 1 biswa = 18.90625 ankanam. At the Himachal biswa (435.6 sq ft, the same size as a cent), 1 biswa = 6.05 ankanam.

Can Ankanam be converted to Katha?

Yes, and two of the three eastern kathas divide it exactly: 1 West Bengal katha = 10 ankanam, 1 Assam katha = 40 ankanam. The Bihar katha does not divide cleanly, and Bihar's own revenue glossary concedes the katha varies within the state.

No. The ankanam appears in no Andhra Pradesh or Telangana government record, in no statute, and in no gazette notification we could find. Your deed will be registered in square yards, stamp duty calculated from a guideline value quoted per square yard, and your pattadar passbook or Form 1-B will show acres and cents.

Under the Legal Metrology Act, 2009, section 11 prohibits expressing a quantity in a transaction otherwise than in standard units, so a per-ankanam quotation has no standing under the Act. Enforcement against real-estate quotation is effectively absent, and the square yard the state itself uses is not metric either; but the ankanam has no legal status at all, and you should never let it be the only area figure in a negotiation.

Why is there no official definition of the Ankanam?

Because it was never an area unit to begin with. Both standard dictionaries define ankanam as the space between two pillars, a bay, whose size is whatever the builder made it. The Śilpa Śāstra texts use it the same relational way, with no dimension specified anywhere. A term that means "the gap between two supports" was never going to produce a single number when people began counting plots with it.

What is the difference between Ankanam and Gajam?

A gajam is a square yard, 9 sq ft, fixed, and the unit AP and Telangana actually register in. An ankanam is 8 gajam. Use gajam in writing and ankanam only in conversation: they differ by a clean factor of eight, but only one of them can mean two different things.

Are there any sub-units of the Ankanam?

None that we could find. Sub-ankanam quantities are expressed in gajam. A half ankanam is simply 4 gajam.

What is a Kuncham?

Another Andhra unit that appears alongside the ankanam: 1 kuncham = 484 square yards = 60.5 ankanam, and 10 kuncham = 1 acre. It gives the tidiest ladder in the Andhra system and is worth knowing if you meet agricultural land in the same conversation.

How do I convert a price quoted per ankanam?

Divide by the ankanam size in square feet to get a price per square foot, then multiply by 9 for a price per square yard. The figure you can actually compare against the notified guideline value.

₹32,000 per ankanam ÷ 72 = ₹444.44 per sq ft × 9 = ₹4,000 per sq yd

At the Tirupati 36 sq ft ankanam the same quote is ₹8,000 per square yard, exactly double, for the same money. Ask for the price per square yard and the total area in square yards; both will appear on the deed, so there is no reason for a seller to withhold either. See Converting Prices Quoted per Ankanam.

What is a pattadar passbook, and will my ankanam figure be in it?

The pattadar passbook is the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana document recording a landholder's rights in agricultural land, issued under the AP Rights in Land and Pattadar Pass Books Act, 1971. It states extent in acres and cents (AP) or acres and guntas (Telangana). Your ankanam figure will not appear in it, and for a residential plot in an approved layout you will normally have a registered sale deed and a municipal record rather than a passbook at all.

If a conversion source is wrong, how would I know?

Four checks catch almost everything:

  1. Does the chain close? Any correct set of factors must return 43,560 sq ft to the acre. 72 × 605 = 43,560 ✓
  2. Does the sub-chain close? 9 (gajam) × 8 = 72 (ankanam); 72 × 6.05 = 435.6 (cent) ✓
  3. Did the source name a belt? The ankanam is 72 square feet in most of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and 36 around Tirupati, so a converter that offers one number without asking where the plot is has given you a default rather than an answer. This is the check that matters most here, because the ankanam appears in no government record and there is nothing to fall back on.

The remaining general check, whether a kachha unit is smaller than its pucca counterpart, does not arise for the ankanam, which has no kachha/pucca pair. The Four-Check Method page sets out both general checks in full.

Specific claims to reject: "1 cent = 48 square yards" (it is 48.4) · "12.5 ankanam = 1 cent" (6.05, or 12.1 at 36 sq ft) · "1 gajam ≈ 43.56 sq ft" (it is 9) · a 64 sq ft ankanam (no source anywhere supports it) · "1 ground = 203 m²" (it is 222.967).

If you arrived here with a figure in another unit, start from that unit's page. Each carries the same verified factors and the same regional qualifications, applied from its own starting point.

Most useful from here: Square Yard · Square Feet · Gajam · Cent · Acre · Guntha · Square Metre · Ground · Hectare

Also in the series: Ares · Bigha · Biswa · Chatak · Decimal · Dhur · Kanal · Katha · Killa · Lessa · Marla · Murabba · Nali · Perch · Pura · Square Karam · Square Centimetre · Square Inch · Square Kilometre · Square Mile

Background reference: Indian Land Units by State, the regional definitions of bigha, biswa, katha, dhur, kanal, marla and nali, in one place.

Sources and Method

Every figure was computed in exact fraction arithmetic from one anchor (1 ankanam = 72 square feet, against 1 acre = 43,560 square feet), and machine-checked to confirm that each unit chain closes back to 43,560 square feet per acre. Nothing was copied from another converter. Every value is marked exact or recurring.

Lexicographic and architectural sources - Percival, A Telugu–English Dictionary: అంకణము, "the space between two beams, or pillars" - F. Kittel, A Kannada–English Dictionary, p. 7, ankana, the space between posts, pillars or beams (quoted via secondary sources; we could not reach the original directly) - Alar Kannada–English corpus, ಅಂಕಣ: the bay sense, and the separate "approximately 100 sq ft of building" sense - P. K. Acharya, A Dictionary of Hindu Architecture (Manasara Series, Vol. I): aṅka(ga)ṇa / aṅgaṇa, citing the Mānasāra and Kāmikāgama, and the Epigraphia Carnatica "mandapa of twelve anganas" - Dagens, architectural terms in the Ajitāgama and Rauravāgama: aṅkaṇa as enclosure or courtyard

Government and statutory sources checked - Legal Metrology Act, 2009: ss. 4, 10, 11 - Legal Metrology (National Standards) Rules, 2011: square metre, are, hectare - AP Rights in Land and Pattadar Pass Books Act, 1971: contains no area units - AP Survey and Boundaries Act, 1923: contains no area units - AP Adangal / Form 1-B (Meebhoomi): acres and cents - Telangana ROR / Pahani / 1-B: acres and guntas - AP and Telangana IGRS market-value tables: per square yard - BIPM, SI Brochure, 9th edition, version 4.01 (4 June 2026): the are and hectare as historical decimal names

Telugu-language and local-market sources - Telugu land-measurement references giving 605 ankanam to the acre, 72 sq ft, and the cent/gunta regional split - A Tirupati property agency's own guidance naming both the 36 and 72 sq ft ankanam and advising verification against the layout, sale deed or registration documents - Live Andhra listings quoting plots and prices per ankanam in Tirupati (40, 100, 200 ankanam) and Nellore (25, 30, 50 ankanam)

What is original to this page. The finding that no primary, statutory or pre-internet source defines the ankanam's size, and that the standard Telugu and Kannada dictionaries record only the architectural sense with no area at all · the identification of three distinct magnitudes (72, 36 and ~100 sq ft) and the separation of the Kannada building measure from the Andhra land measure · the demonstration that the "12.5 ankanam = 1 cent" rule contradicts the 72 sq ft figure published in the same local guide · the correction of the widely-copied "1 cent = 48 square yards" (it is 48.4) · the observation that 72 = 2³ × 3² makes the ankanam divide exactly into more Indian units than almost any other traditional unit · the square-yard division test for identifying which ankanam applies to a given plot · the price-conversion analysis using real advertised rates · and the verified negative that the ankanam appears in no AP or Telangana government system.

What we could not verify, and are not going to invent. Any primary, statutory or pre-internet source for the 72 sq ft figure or the 605-per-acre count · any government circular, gazette or collector notification defining the ankanam · any use of the ankanam as a land unit in Karnataka, from any non-encyclopaedic or Kannada-language source · any Telangana-specific or Telugu-language source using it · districts beyond Nellore, Tirupati and Chittoor · any documented account of how the architectural bay became a land measure · the 12 ft × 6 ft derivation beyond a single Telugu source · and any reported dispute, litigation or fraud arising from the unit's ambiguity. Where a competitor supplies a confident number for any of these, it does not have a source either.

Disclaimer

This page is an informational reference for land-area conversion. It is not legal, valuation or survey advice. The ankanam has no official definition, and the values used here reflect documented market conventions that may not match the convention applied in your district, in a particular layout, or by a particular seller.

For any purchase, sale, mutation, partition, litigation or other transaction, rely on the registered documents, the approved layout plan, the applicable land record and, where appropriate, a survey by a licensed surveyor or the revenue authority, not on a converted figure.

Conversion factors and standards references current as of September 2026.

Ankanam Conversion Quick Reference

Conversion 1 Ankanam Note
Acre 0.001653 Recurring; Exact by definition: 43,560 sq ft = 4,840 sq yd
Ares 0.0668901888 Exact; 100 m², the metric are
Bigha 0.002645 (UP pucca / Bihar / Rajasthan pucca) Region-specific; also 0.007934 (UP kachha (6⅔ biswa)) · 0.010579 (UP kachha (5 biswa) / Uttarakhand hills) · 0.004132 (Rajasthan kachha / Gujarat vigha / Uttarakhand Terai)
Biswa 0.052893 (UP / Rajasthan pucca) Region-specific; also 0.082645 (Rajasthan kachha) · 0.158678 (Punjab / Haryana old records) · 0.165289 (Himachal Pradesh)
Biswa Kacha 0.158678 (Punjab / Haryana revenue definition) Region-specific; also 0.082645 (Rajasthan kachha reading)
Cent 0.165289 Recurring; One hundredth of an acre, exactly
Chatak 1.6 Exact; 5 sq yd exactly; 16 to the cottah, 968 to the acre. Reported, not stated by any instrument located
Decimal 0.165289 Recurring; One hundredth of an acre, exactly
Dhur 1.057851 (Bihar / Jharkhand (Patna chain)) Region-specific; also 20 (Tripura)
Dismil 0.165289 Recurring; The decimal under another name
Gaj 8 Exact; The square yard, 9 sq ft
Gajam 8 Exact; The square yard in Telugu, 9 sq ft
Ground 0.03 Exact; Tamil Nadu Urban Land Tax Act 1966, s.2(8-A): "an area comprising two hundred and twenty three square metres (two thousand and four hundred square feet)"
Guntha 0.066116 Recurring; 121 sq yd; 40 guntha = 1 acre exactly
Hectare 0.000668901888 Exact; 10,000 m² exactly
Kanal 0.013223 (Standard (66-inch karam)) Region-specific; also 0.016 (Majha belt (60-inch karam)) · 0.017422 (Doaba belt (57.5-inch karam)) · 0.019753 (Kapurthala belt (54-inch karam))
Katha 0.052893 (Bihar state standard) Region-specific; also 0.1 (West Bengal / Jharkhand) · 0.025 (Assam) · 0.041322 (Bihar (Chhapra))
Killa 0.001653 Recurring; The acre under its Punjabi name
Lessa 0.5 Exact; The 12-foot mauzadari jar squared (Assam Land Records Manual r.117); 20 to a katha, 100 to a bigha
Marla 0.264463 (Standard (66-inch karam)) Region-specific; also 0.32 (Majha belt (60-inch karam)) · 0.348431 (Doaba belt (57.5-inch karam)) · 0.395062 (Kapurthala belt (54-inch karam))
Murabba 0.0000661 (Punjab canal colony) Region-specific; also 0.000106 (Rajasthan (Indira Gandhi Canal))
Nali 0.033333 Recurring; 240 sq yd; 16 mutthi of 135 sq ft. No instrument located states the figure
Perch 0.264463 Recurring; 30.25 sq yd; 160 perches = 1 acre
Pura 0.00125 Exact; 4 Assam bigha of 14,400 sq ft. The 4:1 ratio is SOURCED -- the Supreme Court states it in 1961 and 1971 and the Gauhati High Court in 1986, 2023, 2024 and 2026 -- but no instrument, judgment or manual states the square-foot figure, which is derived from the Assam bigha
Square Centimeter 66,890.1888 Exact; One ten-thousandth of a square metre
Square Feet 72 Exact; The base of this series
Square Inch 10,368 Exact; One 144th of a square foot
Square Karam 2.380165 (Standard (66-inch karam)) Region-specific; also 2.88 (Majha belt (60-inch karam)) · 3.135879 (Doaba belt (57.5-inch karam)) · 3.555556 (Kapurthala belt (54-inch karam))
Square Kilometer 0.00000668901888 Exact; 1,000,000 m²
Square Meter 6.68901888 Exact; The SI unit of area
Square Mile 0.00000258 Recurring; Standards of Weights and Measures Act 1976, Schedule (see s.79): "1 square mile = 2 589 988.110 336 square metres"; 640 acres exactly
Square Yard 8 Exact; 9 sq ft exactly

Ankanam to the Units That Are the Same Area

Six of the thirty-two units are two names for one area with another, so their figures are identical to the last digit.

Ankanam to Decimal

1 ankanam = 0.165289 decimal. A decimal and a cent are the same area, 435.6 square feet, so any Ankanam figure converts to the same number of either. Decimal = Ankanam ÷ 6.05 · reverse Ankanam = Decimal × 6.05

Ankanam to Dismil

1 ankanam = 0.165289 dismil. A dismil and a cent are the same area, 435.6 square feet, so any Ankanam figure converts to the same number of either. Dismil = Ankanam ÷ 6.05 · reverse Ankanam = Dismil × 6.05

Ankanam to Gajam

1 ankanam = 8 gajam. A gajam and a gaj are the same area, 9 square feet, so any Ankanam figure converts to the same number of either. Gajam = Ankanam × 8 · reverse Ankanam = Gajam × 0.125

Ankanam to Killa

1 ankanam = 0.001653 killa. A killa and an acre are the same area, 43,560 square feet, so any Ankanam figure converts to the same number of either. Killa = Ankanam ÷ 605 · reverse Ankanam = Killa × 605

Ankanam to Perch

1 ankanam = 0.264463 perches. A perch and a marla are the same area, 272.25 square feet, so any Ankanam figure converts to the same number of either. Perch = Ankanam ÷ 3.78125 · reverse Ankanam = Perch × 3.78125

Ankanam to Square Yard

1 ankanam = 8 square yards. A square yard and a gaj are the same area, 9 square feet, so any Ankanam figure converts to the same number of either. Square Yard = Ankanam × 8 · reverse Ankanam = Square Yard × 0.125

The tables above are arithmetic, and for an ankanam the arithmetic is the easy half. What decides whether the figure you started with is the right one to convert at all is The Three Ankanams: 72, 36 and ~100 Square Feet.

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