Bigha Converter – Bigha to Sq Ft, Acre, Hectare & Other Land Units in India

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

Part of the India Land Unit Converter series.

Every figure was computed in exact fraction arithmetic from the verified square-foot size of each regional bigha, against 1 acre = 43,560 sq ft exactly, and machine-checked. Nothing was copied from another converter. Where sources disagree, this page shows the disagreement instead of choosing silently. Where a value could not be verified, it says so rather than supplying a plausible number.

There Is No Such Thing as "One Bigha"

A bigha in Bettiah is 65,340 square feet. A bigha in the Uttarakhand hills is 6,806.25. That is a 9.6-fold difference behind one word, in one country, today.

Between the main regional bighas the spread is narrower but still enormous:

Square feet Acres Where
Largest common 27,225 0.625 Eastern UP, Patna, eastern Rajasthan
Smallest common 6,806.25 0.15625 Western UP (5-biswa), Uttarakhand hills
Ratio 4×
Bigha Square Feet Square Meter Biswa (UP) Katha (Bihar state standard) Acre
1 27,225 2,529.285264 20 20 0.625
2 54,450 5,058.570528 40 40 1.25
3 81,675 7,587.855792 60 60 1.875
5 136,125 12,646.42632 100 100 3.125
10 272,250 25,292.85264 200 200 6.25
20 544,500 50,585.70528 400 400 12.5
50 1,361,250 126,464.2632 1,000 1,000 31.25
100 2,722,500 252,928.5264 2,000 2,000 62.5
200 5,445,000 505,857.0528 4,000 4,000 125
500 13,612,500 1,264,642.632 10,000 10,000 312.5
1,000 27,225,000 2,529,285.264 20,000 20,000 625

A bigha figure with no state attached is not an answer. Any page, calculator or broker that tells you "1 bigha = X square feet" without asking where your land is has guessed, and has a one-in-ten chance of being right.

This page does not give you a single number. It gives you the table that lets you find yours, the mechanism that explains why they differ, and a procedure for checking a figure someone has handed you.

Start here: Find your bigha in the master table.

Find Your Bigha: Master Regional Table

Region Sq Ft Sq Yd Sq M Bigha per acre Acre each Exact fraction
UP pucca · Bihar (Patna) · Rajasthan pucca 27,225 3,025 2,529.2853 1.6 0.625 5/8 acre
Punjab (4 kanal) 21,780 2,420 2,023.4282 2 0.5 1/2 acre
Rajasthan kachha (Marwar) · Gujarat vigha 17,424 1,936 1,618.7426 2.5 0.4 2/5 acre
West Bengal · Assam · Jharkhand 14,400 1,600 1,337.8038 3.025 0.330579 1,600 sq yd
Madhya Pradesh (unverified, see note) 12,000 1,333.3333 1,114.8365 3.63 0.275482 n/a
Delhi NCR 9,072 1,008 842.8164 4.8016 0.208264 1,008 sq yd
UP kachha (6⅔ biswa) 9,075 1,008.3333 843.0951 4.8 0.208333 1/3 of pucca
Himachal Pradesh · Haryana (Rohtak belt) 8,712 968 809.3713 5 0.2 1/5 acre
Haryana (Ambala belt) 8,100 900 752.5146 5.3778 0.18595 900 sq yd
UP kachha (5 biswa) · Uttarakhand hills 6,806.25 756.25 632.3213 6.4 0.15625 1/4 of pucca

Bihar's District Bighas: a Separate Problem

Bihar's katha varies by district, and the bigha varies with it. These are not errors; they are different local rods:

District 1 katha (sq ft) 1 bigha (sq ft) Acres Note
Patna, Arrah 1,361.25 27,225 0.625 The state's reference value
Chhapra (Saran) 1,742.4 34,848 0.8 exactly
Hajipur (Vaishali) 1,901.25 38,025 0.872934 195 × 195 ft
Bettiah (W. Champaran) 3,267 65,340 1.5 exactly 2.4× the Patna bigha

Regions With No Bigha at All

Three states are commonly given bigha values by converters that should not have them:

State Actual units Note
Tripura Kani (17,280 sq ft) · gonda (864) · kara (216) · kranti · dhur (3.6) The state government publishes its own unit list. Bigha is not on it. The "Tripura bigha = 14,400" in circulation appears to be Bengal's figure pasted across
Odisha Guntha (1,089) · decimal (435.6) · acre Bigha is not an Odisha unit
Maharashtra Guntha · acre · hectare (7/12 in hectare–are–sq m) Nineteenth-century Deccan bighas are recorded in antiquarian sources, but there is no live Maharashtra bigha

Two Values We Will Not Assert

Madhya Pradesh: 12,000 sq ft. Widely repeated, and we could not improve on it. It has no sub-unit chain, no statutory basis and no derivation, and unlike almost every other genuine bigha it is not a clean fraction of an acre (0.2755) or the square of a sensible rod. Treat it as indicative only.

Bundelkhand (Jhansi, Banda). Two calculator sources give 20,000 sq ft and 3,500 sq ft for the same districts, a 5.7× disagreement, neither with a cited authority, and 20,000 is not the square of any sensible rod (√20,000 = 141.42 ft). We report the conflict and take no side.

Contents

Understanding the unit No Single Bigha · Master Table · What Is a Bigha and Why Does It Vary? · Pucca and Kachha · Bigha by State · Is the Bigha in Your Land Record? · Sub-Unit Chains

Converting The Formula · All Formulas at a Glance · Square Feet · Acre · Square Metre · Hectare · Square Yard · Biswa · Katha · Cent · Decimal · Dismil · Guntha · Kanal · Marla · Gaj · Ares

Sub-units and cross-regional Dhur · Chatak · Lessa · Biswansi · Biswa Kacha · Ankanam · Gajam · Ground · Killa · Murabba · Nali · Perch · Pura · Square Karam · Square Inch · Square Centimetre · Square Kilometre · Square Mile

Using the numbers Checking a Bigha Figure · Converting Prices per Bigha · Bigha vs Acre · Bigha vs Biswa · 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. The unit appears as bigha (Hindi बीघा), bigah, beegah in older English sources, বিঘা in Bengali and Assamese, and વીઘા / vigha in Gujarati, all the same unit.

Convert to a specific unit: Acre · Ankanam · Ares · 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.

Bigha to Other Units – Quick Conversion Formula

Every factor is a bigha's own size, 27,225 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 UP pucca / Bihar / Rajasthan pucca definition of the bigha, 27,225 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
Bigha to Acre Bigha × 0.625 Exact
Bigha to Ankanam Bigha × 378.125 Exact · Ankanam is regional. This row is the Standard; also 756.25
Bigha to Ares Bigha × 25.29285264 Exact
Bigha to Biswa Bigha × 20 Exact · Biswa is regional. This row is the UP / Rajasthan pucca; also 31.25, 60, 62.5
Bigha to Biswa Kacha Bigha × 31.25 Exact · Biswa Kacha is regional. This row is the Rajasthan kachha reading; also 60
Bigha to Cent Bigha × 62.5 Exact
Bigha to Chatak Bigha × 605 Exact
Bigha to Decimal Bigha × 62.5 Exact
Bigha to Dhur Bigha × 400 Exact · Dhur is regional. This row is the Bihar / Jharkhand (Patna chain); also 7,562.5
Bigha to Dismil Bigha × 62.5 Exact
Bigha to Gaj Bigha × 3,025 Exact
Bigha to Gajam Bigha × 3,025 Exact
Bigha to Ground Bigha × 11.34375 Exact
Bigha to Guntha Bigha × 25 Exact
Bigha to Hectare Bigha × 0.2529285264 Exact
Bigha to Kanal Bigha × 5 Exact · Kanal is regional. This row is the Standard (66-inch karam); also 6.05, 6.587524, 7.469136
Bigha to Katha Bigha × 20 Exact · Katha is regional. This row is the Bihar state standard; also 37.8125, 9.453125, 15.625 and 2 more
Bigha to Killa Bigha × 0.625 Exact
Bigha to Lessa Bigha × 189.0625 Exact
Bigha to Marla Bigha × 100 Exact · Marla is regional. This row is the Standard (66-inch karam); also 121, 131.750473, 149.382716 and 1 more
Bigha to Murabba Bigha × 0.025 Exact · Murabba is regional. This row is the Punjab canal colony; also 0.04
Bigha to Nali Bigha × 605/48 Recurring
Bigha to Perch Bigha × 100 Exact
Bigha to Pura Bigha × 0.47265625 Exact
Bigha to Square Centimeter Bigha × 25,292,852.64 Exact
Bigha to Square Feet Bigha × 27,225 Exact
Bigha to Square Inch Bigha × 3,920,400 Exact
Bigha to Square Karam Bigha × 900 Exact · Square Karam is regional. This row is the Standard (66-inch karam); also 1,089, 1,185.754253, 1,344.444444
Bigha to Square Kilometer Bigha × 0.002529285264 Exact
Bigha to Square Meter Bigha × 2,529.285264 Exact
Bigha to Square Mile Bigha × 0.0009765625 Exact
Bigha to Square Yard Bigha × 3,025 Exact

What Is a Bigha, and Why Does It Vary?

The bigha is not a broken unit. It is a perfectly consistent unit built on an inconsistent foundation, and once you see the foundation, every regional value on this page becomes predictable rather than arbitrary.

The Akbari Bigha

The definition comes from the Ain-i-Akbari, Abu'l Fazl's administrative account of Akbar's empire completed in 1595. Ā'īn X states it plainly:

The bigha is a quantity of land 60 gaz long by 60 broad, subdivided into 20 biswah, each of which is 20 biswānsah.

Sixty gaz square. That is the whole definition, and it is why the bigha's size depends entirely on how long a gaz is.

Work it through. At the Ilahi gaz of 33 inches (2.75 feet):

60 gaz × 2.75 ft = 165 feet 165 × 165 = 27,225 square feet

That is the pucca bigha, exactly. 3,025 square yards, 2,529.2853 m², five-eighths of an acre. The number that looks arbitrary on every converter site is a square 165 feet on a side, and it has been that since the sixteenth century.

The Problem Was Always the Gaz

Ā'īn VIII records that Akbar inherited chaos and tried to end it:

Throughout Hindustan there were three such measures current, viz., long, middling and short. [Akbar] abolished them all and brought a medium gaz of 41 digits into general use. He named it the Ilāhi gaz.

It did not hold. When British surveyors investigated in 1824–5 they found the Ilahi gaz still ranged from roughly 29 to 35 inches across the country. The 33-inch value that produces 27,225 sq ft was fixed by administrative decision in 1825–6. It is a nineteenth-century British standardisation of a sixteenth-century unit, not a measured sixteenth-century fact.

This matters, and almost no converter says it: the "standard" bigha is standard because the British picked a number, not because Akbar's officials measured one.

The Rope That Changed With the Weather

Ā'īn IX explains the second source of variance, and it is the best line in the entire subject:

[The measuring rope] became shorter or longer according to the dryness or moisture of the atmosphere, and the revenue was subject to fluctuations… In the nineteenth year of the Divine Era the jarīb was made of bamboos joined by iron rings. Thus it is subject to no variation.

A hemp rope that stretches in the monsoon and shrinks in summer, used to assess tax. Akbar's fix, bamboo lengths joined with iron rings, is one of the earliest recorded deliberate improvements to measurement reproducibility anywhere. But it fixed the instrument, not the length, and the length is what kept drifting from district to district.

From Sher Shah to Todar Mal

The bigha became a revenue unit before it became a land unit. Sher Shah Suri (r. 1540–45) graded fields into three qualities and set a cash rate per bigha based on a notional one-third of average produce. Raja Todar Mal, taking charge of Akbar's revenue in 1574 and again in 1582, averaged yield and price per bigha across ten years (1570–71 to 1579–80) and set the state's share as a cash rate per bigha, the dahsala system, proclaimed in 1580.

So the bigha was the unit in which tax was assessed. That is why every locality had a strong interest in its precise size, and why local rods persisted: the bigha was money, and nobody surrenders a favourable rod voluntarily.

The Settlement Era

By the time British settlement officers arrived, the divergence was total. A frequently-quoted settlement observation puts the range at:

some forty different bighas in use in various parts of the State, based on chains or rather ropes varying from 100 feet to 185 feet.

A note on that quote. It is carried by the standard reference on the unit, but we could not trace it to its original settlement report or gazetteer, and "the State" (capitalised) suggests a princely-state document we could not identify. We quote it because the range it describes is independently plausible (a 100-foot rope gives 10,000 sq ft and a 185-foot rope gives 34,225 sq ft, which brackets almost every value on this page), but the attribution is unverified and we are not going to imply otherwise.

Settlement-era district values transcribed from the period sources show the same picture: Agra 3,025 sq yd (60 × 60 Ilahi gaz), Benares 3,136, Patna 3,025, Farrukhabad 2,756¼, Moradabad 2,304, Delhi 2,500, Broach 3,025, Bengal 1,660, and Tirhoot recording both 4,900 and 3,906¼ square yards in the same district, depending on whether the large or small lugee was used.

Why It Never Got Fixed

Because fixing it would have meant reassessing revenue. Punjab and Haryana eventually did it, see Is the Bigha in Your Land Record?, but most states simply let the metric units arrive alongside the bigha rather than replacing it. No Indian state statute gives a numeric definition of the bigha. We looked; that section sets out where.

Pucca and Kachha: the Rod, Not the Count

Almost every explanation of pucca and kachha bigha you will find says the difference is how many biswa make a bigha. That is a description of the result. The actual mechanism is simpler and more interesting.

The kachha bigha is made by shortening the measuring rod. The 20-biswa × 20-biswansi chain stays exactly the same; the rod changes; and because area scales as the square of length, a modest change in rod length produces a dramatic change in area.

The Two Documented Rods

The Punjab Land Records Manual records two rod lengths in use with the identical sub-unit chain:

Rod Length 1 biswansi 1 biswa 1 bigha Where
Gatha 99 inches 68.0625 sq ft 1,361.25 sq ft 27,225 sq ft Ludhiana; former Jind State
Karam 57.157 inches 22.6875 sq ft 453.75 sq ft 9,075 sq ft Fazilka, Ropar; former Patiala, Nabha, Malerkotla, recorded as "kachcha bigha"

The Ratio Is Exactly √3

Here is the part that is not in the popular literature. Divide the pucca rod by the square root of three:

99 ÷ √3 = 57.158 inches

The manual's recorded kachha karam is 57.157 inches. Those agree to five significant figures. And since area goes as the square:

(57.157 ÷ 99)² = 0.333325 ≈ ⅓

The kachha bigha is one-third of the pucca bigha because the kachha rod is the pucca rod divided by √3. That is a deliberate geometric relationship rather than a coincidence, but be precise about what it is and is not. The rod ratio reproduces the third to five significant figures, not exactly: 0.333325 against 0.333333. The exact 3:1 ratio between the two bighas is attested separately (the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, Delhi, records on a Patwari's certificate that "one Pucca Bigha is equivalent to three Kaccha Bigha"), and the √3 rod explains where that ratio came from without being the thing that fixes it.

(Amended September 2026. This page previously called the relationship "not an approximation", which its own figure contradicts. The Biswa page reaches the 3:1 ratio from the attested biswa values and declines the rod derivation for want of a reachable source; both pages now state the same thing.)

But It Is Not Always a Third

The standard reference states that "a kuchcha bigha is a third or in other places a fourth of a full bigha," and both fractions are exact. There is also a third pattern that breaks the rule entirely:

Ratio Rod relationship 1 bigha Where
Kachha = ⅓ pucca 99 in ÷ √3 = 57.157 in 9,075 sq ft Punjab, Delhi belt, parts of western UP
Kachha = ¼ pucca rod ÷ 2 6,806.25 sq ft UP 5-biswa districts, Uttarakhand hills
Marwar: 0.64 of pucca 165 ft → 132 ft (a 5:4 linear ratio) 17,424 sq ft Jodhpur, Barmer, Bikaner

Marwar is the one that matters for anyone dealing with Rajasthan. Its bigha is not a fraction of the pucca bigha at all. It is a different square, 132 feet on a side against 165. The linear ratio is 5:4, so the area ratio is 25:16 = 0.64. Calling it a "kachha bigha" invites you to assume a third or a quarter, and it is neither.

A Near-Primary Anchor

The best primary attestation we found for the kachha figure is C. A. H. Townsend's 1912 settlement report, which records the kachcha bigha as "0.208 of an acre" and argues for retaining traditional measures to avoid "confusion in the revenue records."

9,075 ÷ 43,560 = 0.208333 acre ✓

A settlement officer arguing in 1912 that abandoning the local unit would cause confusion is a useful corrective to the modern assumption that standardisation was obviously overdue.

The UP Biswa: Constant, With One Condition

You will read that the biswa is constant at 1,361.25 sq ft across Uttar Pradesh while the bigha varies. That is correct, and it is the single most useful fact for a UP transaction, but it needs its condition stated.

The biswa is 1,361.25 sq ft wherever the 99-inch gatha applies. What varies between eastern and western UP is not the biswa but how many biswa the local trade calls a bigha: 20 in the east, 6⅔ or 5 in the west.

Where a genuinely different rod is used, Marwar's 132-foot square, the biswa is 871.2 sq ft, not 1,361.25. So the correct statement is not "the biswa is constant everywhere"; it is "the biswa is constant within a rod tradition, and the bigha is not."

Practical consequence: in UP, transact in biswa. A biswa figure is unambiguous across the state. A bigha figure is not.

Bigha by State: In Depth

Uttar Pradesh

Three bighas, one biswa.

Type Pucca biswa per bigha Sq ft Bigha per acre Where
Pucca 20 27,225 1.6 Purvanchal, Awadh, Lucknow, eastern UP generally
Kachha 6⅔ 9,075 4.8 Western UP
Kachha 5 6,806.25 6.4 Western UP

Read that column carefully: it is the one thing on this page most likely to mislead. It counts pucca biswas, so a kachha bigha holds 6⅔ of them. It is not an exception to the twenty-biswa rule. Measured in its own kachha biswas of 453.75 sq ft, the 9,075 sq ft kachha bigha holds exactly twenty, like every other bigha in the system. The chain, and the two biswa values that are actually attested, are set out separately. (Column re-headed September 2026; it previously read "Biswa per bigha", which read as an exception and is not one.)

Sub-unit chain: 1 bigha = 20 biswa = 400 biswansi = 8,000 kachwansi (pucca: 1,361.25 / 68.0625 / 3.403125 sq ft).

A figure you will see constantly: 27,000 sq ft. It is a rounding of 27,225 and nothing more. No source defines it independently. You will also meet 27,220 and 27,211; all three are corruptions of the same number. Using 27,000 understates by 225 sq ft per bigha, which is 2,250 sq ft on a ten-bigha holding.

Bihar

The state reference is the Patna bigha at 27,225 sq ft, but Bihar's own revenue glossary concedes that the katha "varies from region to region in Bihar", and the bigha varies with it. See the district table above: Chhapra is exactly 0.8 acre, Bettiah exactly 1.5 acre.

Chain: 1 bigha = 20 katha = 400 dhur = 8,000 dhurki.

Rajasthan

Two bighas, and a statutory acknowledgement that there are more.

  • Pucca: 27,225 sq ft (165 × 165 ft). Jaipur and eastern Rajasthan. Used in formal plot descriptions, including urban and peri-urban land.
  • Kachha: 17,424 sq ft (132 × 132 ft). Marwar: Jodhpur, Barmer, Bikaner.

Rule 70 of the Rajasthan Land Revenue (Land Records) Rules, 1957 provides that area shall be entered:

in standard bighas or acres as prevalent in the integrating unit (the different bigha measure prevalent in the various integrating states of Rajasthan being shown in Appendix I).

That is a state rule conceding, in its own text, that the bigha differs between the former princely states that merged to form Rajasthan. We could not obtain Appendix I. Every digitised copy of the 1957 Rules we could reach truncates before the appendices, and the official PDF's text ends mid-rule. The schedule of per-state bigha values that Rajasthan's own rules point to does not appear to be publicly available online.

What Rajasthan did instead is instructive. Rule 5 of the Rajasthan Land Revenue (Survey, Record and Settlement) (Government) Rules, 1957 provides that a "chain measuring 40 metres in length shall be Standard Chain in Rajasthan," with a further rule allowing conversion where a non-standard chain was used at the last survey. The state standardised the rod and converted, rather than defining the bigha.

Gujarat

The vigha (વીઘા) is 17,424 sq ft = exactly 0.4 acre, and it closes through two independent chains:

1 vigha = 20 vasa (વસા) @ 871.2 sq ft = 17,424 ✓ 1 vigha = 16 guntha @ 1,089 sq ft = 17,424 ✓ 1 acre = 50 vasa = 40 guntha = 2.5 vigha ✓

Gujarat is the tidiest bigha in India, three chains agreeing to the digit. A terminology trap to watch: older Gujarat sources use guntha as a linear rod, with the vigha as the square of 20 gunthas. Modern usage is the 1,089 sq ft area guntha.

West Bengal, Assam and Jharkhand

All three use a 14,400 sq ft bigha (1,600 square yards, a 120 × 120 ft square), but the chains below it differ structurally:

State Chain Katha
West Bengal 1 bigha = 20 katha = 320 chatak 720 sq ft
Assam 1 bigha = 5 katha = 100 lessa 2,880 sq ft
Jharkhand (Ranchi) 1 bigha = 20 katha 720 sq ft

The Assam katha is four times the Bengal katha even though both states use the same bigha, because Assam puts five katha in a bigha, not twenty. Assam's Cachar and Barak Valley are the exception within Assam: they use the Bengali 720 sq ft katha.

A 27,211 sq ft "Jharkhand bigha" circulates widely. It has no derivable rod, no chain and no clean acre fraction, and the actual Jharkhand chain (20 katha of 720 sq ft) closes at 14,400. Treat 27,211 as a corruption.

Himachal Pradesh

8,712 sq ft = exactly one-fifth of an acre, 20 biswa of 435.6 sq ft each. Note that the Himachal biswa is exactly one cent, the southern Indian unit, which makes Himachal holdings unusually easy to compare with Kerala or Tamil Nadu ones.

Haryana: Two Traditions, Both Live

This is where the Acre page in this series was too cautious, and the correction matters.

System 1 bigha Bigha per acre Districts
Kanal system (4 kanal) 21,780 sq ft 2 The standardised acre-kanal-marla areas
Biswa system 8,100 sq ft (900 sq yd) 5.3778 Ambala, Gurugram, Faridabad, Karnal, Panipat
Biswa system 8,712 sq ft (968 sq yd) 5 Rohtak, Hisar

These are not competing errors, both traditions genuinely coexist in Haryana, which is why sources appear irreconcilable until you separate them. The kanal-derived figure applies where consolidation standardised the karam; the biswa figures survive in districts where it did not.

Punjab

1 bigha = 4 kanal = 21,780 sq ft = exactly half an acre, under the standardised 66-inch karam:

sarsahi 30.25 → marla (×9) 272.25 → kanal (×20) 5,445 → bigha (×4) 21,780 → acre (×2) 43,560

Older karams of 60, 57.5 and 54 inches survive in unconsolidated areas and produce smaller bighas, which is the source of the 9,075 and 10,890 figures also in circulation. For a modern Punjab jamabandi, work in kanal and marla; the record is kept in those, not in bigha.

Delhi NCR

1 bigha = 1,008 square yards = 9,072 sq ft. Delhi sits in the Punjab kachha-bigha zone, and 1,008 sq yd is the round-number trade form of the 57.157-inch karam bigha (1,008.33 sq yd). The three-square-foot difference from the UP kachha bigha is a rounding, not a different unit.

Delhi is one of the few places where the bigha is routinely used for urban and urban-fringe land rather than agricultural land.

Uttarakhand

Hills: 6,806.25 sq ft (5 biswa). Plains and Terai: 17,424 sq ft.

But for hill land the bigha is the wrong unit to transact in. Use the nali (2,160 sq ft, a 60 × 36 ft terrace), which is stable across every source we checked, unlike the hill bigha it is sometimes mapped to.

Madhya Pradesh

12,000 sq ft, and we are flagging it. No sub-unit chain, no statutory basis, no derivation, and, unlike almost every other genuine bigha, not a clean fraction of an acre (0.275482) or the square of a plausible rod. Every source we found is a converter site with no cited authority. Use it as indicative only and confirm against a local record before relying on it. Chhattisgarh has no distinct bigha we could find at all.

Is the Bigha in Your Land Record?

For most readers this is the most useful section on the page, because the answer decides whether the bigha figure you are holding has any official standing at all.

The headline finding: no Indian state statute gives a numeric definition of the bigha. We examined the texts we could reach and found none.

Instrument What we found
Uttar Pradesh Revenue Code, 2006 Uses hectares exclusively. Landholding ceilings are stated at 5.04 ha, 1.265 ha, 53.04 ha. The words bigha, biswa and biswansi do not appear anywhere in the Code.
Rajasthan Land Revenue (Land Records) Rules, 1957 Refers to bigha (Rule 70) but delegates the numbers to Appendix I, which is not publicly available online
Rajasthan Survey, Record & Settlement Rules, 1957 Defines the chain (40 metres), not the bigha
Legal Metrology Act, 2009 and National Standards Rules, 2011 Name the square metre, the are and the hectare. No traditional unit appears
CAG Revenue Audit Manual (Land Revenue), Rajasthan Mentions bigha; provides no conversion table
Government of Tripura, official unit list Publishes kani, gonda, kara, kranti and dhur. Bigha is not on it

We could not retrieve the Assam Land and Revenue Regulation 1886 or the West Bengal Land Reforms Act 1955. Every mirror we tried was blocked. Secondary sources attribute Assam's unit values to a separate Government of Assam revenue-terms document rather than to the 1886 Regulation, which is itself suggestive, but we did not confirm it.

Which Records Still Carry the Bigha

State Digitised record Unit it holds
Assam Dharitree Bigha, katha and lessa are used, alongside hectare and acre. The clearest case of a live digital ROR carrying the bigha
Rajasthan Apna Khata / e-Dharti Largely hectares; bigha is described as non-official usage
Uttar Pradesh Bhulekh khatauni Hectares, consistent with the 2006 Revenue Code. Bigha appears only in user-facing calculators
Bihar Bihar Bhumi Acre and decimal; katha and dhur in local use
West Bengal Banglarbhumi khatian Acre, decimal, hectare; bigha–katha is the market language
Himachal Pradesh HimBhoomi Bigha–biswa reportedly persist in the jamabandi; we could not confirm this from an official source

Two States Abolished It

Punjab and Haryana replaced the bigha–biswa system with acre–kanal–marla from 1957, with metrification completed by 1977 and the framework codified in the Punjab Weights and Measurement Act, 1976.

Uttar Pradesh effectively abolished it too, though without saying so, by writing the entire Revenue Code 2006 in hectares and never mentioning the bigha.

What This Means for You

The bigha is a market unit almost everywhere and a record unit almost nowhere. Assam is the significant exception.

So the practical rule is: negotiate in bigha if that is the local language, but verify in whatever unit your record actually uses, hectares in UP and Rajasthan, acres and decimals in Bihar and Bengal, kanal and marla in Punjab and Haryana. If the two disagree, the record governs, and the bigha figure was never the operative number.

Sub-Unit Chains by Region

The bigha's sub-units are usually more reliable than the bigha itself, because the chains are fixed even where the absolute size is not.

Region Chain Sizes (sq ft)
UP · Rajasthan · Punjab (pucca) bigha → 20 biswa → 20 biswansi → 20 kachwansi 27,225 → 1,361.25 → 68.0625 → 3.403125
Bihar bigha → 20 katha → 20 dhur → 20 dhurki 27,225 → 1,361.25 → 68.0625 → 3.403125
West Bengal bigha → 20 katha → 16 chatak 14,400 → 720 → 45
Assam bigha → 5 katha → 20 lessa 14,400 → 2,880 → 144
Gujarat vigha → 20 vasa · vigha → 16 guntha 17,424 → 871.2 · 17,424 → 1,089
Nepal (Terai), customary, not statutory bigha → 20 katha → 20 dhur 72,900 → 3,645 → 182.25

A structural coincidence worth noticing: Bihar's chain produces exactly the same four numbers as the UP chain (27,225 / 1,361.25 / 68.0625 / 3.403125) under different names. A Bihar dhur and a UP biswansi are the same 68.0625 sq ft. Two states inherited one Mughal subdivision and renamed it.

Below the chatak, nothing. West Bengal's 45 sq ft chatak appears to be the floor of the Bengal system; we found no smaller unit.

The Dhur Trap

One word, three wildly different areas:

Region 1 dhur
Bihar / Jharkhand 68.0625 sq ft
Nepal Terai 182.25 sq ft
Tripura 3.6 sq ft

Fifty dhur is 3,403 sq ft in Patna, 9,113 sq ft across the Nepal border, and 180 sq ft in Agartala. Never convert a dhur figure without knowing the state.

Nepal

Border-district readers and the diaspora meet this constantly. The Nepali bigha is 72,900 sq ft, a 270 × 270 ft square, 6,772.63 m², 1.6736 acres. That is 2.68 times the Indian pucca bigha and more than ten times the Uttarakhand hill bigha. Nepal's hill system uses a different unit entirely, the ropani (5,476 sq ft).

Bigha Conversion Formula

The Only Method That Always Works

Square feet = Number of bigha × (local bigha in square feet)

then one division to whatever you need:

Acres = sq ft ÷ 43,560 · Square metres = sq ft × 0.09290304 · Gunthas = sq ft ÷ 1,089 · Cents = sq ft ÷ 435.6

Do not use a direct "bigha to X" factor. Every such factor bakes in an assumed region, and if the assumption is wrong the error is invisible. Routing through square feet forces you to state the region, which is exactly the discipline this unit requires.

Worked Example

10 bigha, in three different places:

Region Sq ft Acres Hectares
Eastern UP (pucca) 272,250 6.25 2.529285
Rajasthan Marwar 174,240 4 1.618743
Uttarakhand hills 68,062.50 1.5625 0.632321

Same "10 bigha." Four times the land between the first and the last.

Exact, Rounded and Recurring

Because every bigha is defined in square feet, conversions into square feet, square yards and square metres are exact for every region. Conversions into acre-derived units are exact where the bigha is a clean fraction of an acre, which, remarkably, most of them are:

Region Bigha per acre Exact?
UP pucca 1.6 Exact
Punjab 2 Exact
Rajasthan kachha / Gujarat 2.5 Exact
West Bengal / Assam 3.025 Exact
Himachal 5 Exact
UP kachha 6⅔ 4.8 Exact
UP kachha 5 / Uttarakhand 6.4 Exact
Madhya Pradesh 3.63 Exact (but the underlying value is unverified)
Delhi NCR 4.8016… Recurring
Haryana (Ambala) 5.3778… Recurring

Delhi and the Ambala belt are the only two common bighas that do not divide the acre cleanly, a direct consequence of their being rounded trade figures (1,008 and 900 square yards) rather than rod-derived squares.

Bigha to Square Feet

This is not one conversion. It is ten. The square-foot value is the regional bigha, so each row below is that region’s bigha in the unit most people ask for.

1 Bigha in Square Feet, by Region

Region 1 bigha (sq ft) 1 bigha in Square Feet
UP pucca · Bihar (Patna) · Rajasthan pucca 27,225 27,225
Punjab (4 kanal) 21,780 21,780
Rajasthan kachha (Marwar) · Gujarat vigha 17,424 17,424
West Bengal · Assam · Jharkhand 14,400 14,400
Madhya Pradesh (unverified) 12,000 12,000
Delhi NCR 9,072 9,072
UP kachha (6⅔ biswa) 9,075 9,075
Himachal Pradesh · Haryana (Rohtak belt) 8,712 8,712
Haryana (Ambala belt) 8,100 8,100
UP kachha (5 biswa) · Uttarakhand hills 6,806.25 6,806.25

Number of bigha × the regional factor. Columns are the seven most common bighas.

Bigha UP pucca Punjab Raj kachha / Gujarat WB / Assam UP kachha 6⅔ Himachal UP kachha 5 / U-khand
1 27,225 21,780 17,424 14,400 9,075 8,712 6,806.25
2 54,450 43,560 34,848 28,800 18,150 17,424 13,612.5
3 81,675 65,340 52,272 43,200 27,225 26,136 20,418.75
5 136,125 108,900 87,120 72,000 45,375 43,560 34,031.25
10 272,250 217,800 174,240 144,000 90,750 87,120 68,062.5
20 544,500 435,600 348,480 288,000 181,500 174,240 136,125
50 1,361,250 1,089,000 871,200 720,000 453,750 435,600 340,312.5
100 2,722,500 2,178,000 1,742,400 1,440,000 907,500 871,200 680,625

Square feet is the neutral unit: it is what a buyer from another state will understand, what construction is costed in, and what every other conversion on this page routes through.

Bigha Square Feet
1 27,225
2 54,450
3 81,675
5 136,125
10 272,250
20 544,500
50 1,361,250
100 2,722,500
200 5,445,000
500 13,612,500
1,000 27,225,000

Square Feet = Bigha × 27,225 · reverse Bigha = Square Feet ÷ 27,225

Bigha to Acre

Most Indian bighas are exact fractions of an acre (1/5, 2/5, 1/2, 5/8), which is strong evidence that the local rods were laid out against the acre-based survey rather than independently of it.

1 Bigha in Acres, by Region

Region 1 bigha (sq ft) 1 bigha in Acres
UP pucca · Bihar (Patna) · Rajasthan pucca 27,225 0.625
Punjab (4 kanal) 21,780 0.5
Rajasthan kachha (Marwar) · Gujarat vigha 17,424 0.4
West Bengal · Assam · Jharkhand 14,400 0.330579
Madhya Pradesh (unverified) 12,000 0.275482
Delhi NCR 9,072 0.208264
UP kachha (6⅔ biswa) 9,075 0.208333
Himachal Pradesh · Haryana (Rohtak belt) 8,712 0.2
Haryana (Ambala belt) 8,100 0.18595
UP kachha (5 biswa) · Uttarakhand hills 6,806.25 0.15625

Number of bigha × the regional factor. Columns are the seven most common bighas.

Bigha UP pucca Punjab Raj kachha / Gujarat WB / Assam UP kachha 6⅔ Himachal UP kachha 5 / U-khand
1 0.625 0.5 0.4 0.330579 0.208333 0.2 0.15625
2 1.25 1 0.8 0.661157 0.416667 0.4 0.3125
5 3.125 2.5 2 1.652893 1.041667 1 0.78125
10 6.25 5 4 3.305785 2.083333 2 1.5625
20 12.5 10 8 6.61157 4.166667 4 3.125
50 31.25 25 20 16.528926 10.416667 10 7.8125
100 62.5 50 40 33.057851 20.833333 20 15.625

The two exceptions are Delhi (1,008 sq yd) and Haryana's Ambala belt (900 sq yd), both round-number trade figures rather than rod-derived squares, and both of which give recurring decimals.

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

Acre = Bigha × 0.625 · reverse Bigha = Acre × 1.6

Bigha to Square Meter

Exact for every region. Multiply the regional square-foot value by 0.09290304.

1 Bigha in Square Metres, by Region

Region 1 bigha (sq ft) 1 bigha in Square Metres
UP pucca · Bihar (Patna) · Rajasthan pucca 27,225 2,529.2853
Punjab (4 kanal) 21,780 2,023.4282
Rajasthan kachha (Marwar) · Gujarat vigha 17,424 1,618.7426
West Bengal · Assam · Jharkhand 14,400 1,337.8038
Madhya Pradesh (unverified) 12,000 1,114.8365
Delhi NCR 9,072 842.8164
UP kachha (6⅔ biswa) 9,075 843.0951
Himachal Pradesh · Haryana (Rohtak belt) 8,712 809.3713
Haryana (Ambala belt) 8,100 752.5146
UP kachha (5 biswa) · Uttarakhand hills 6,806.25 632.3213

Number of bigha × the regional factor. Columns are the seven most common bighas.

Bigha UP pucca Punjab Raj kachha / Gujarat WB / Assam UP kachha 6⅔ Himachal UP kachha 5 / U-khand
1 2,529.29 2,023.43 1,618.74 1,337.8 843.1 809.37 632.32
2 5,058.57 4,046.86 3,237.49 2,675.61 1,686.19 1,618.74 1,264.64
5 12,646.43 10,117.14 8,093.71 6,689.02 4,215.48 4,046.86 3,161.61
10 25,292.85 20,234.28 16,187.43 13,378.04 8,430.95 8,093.71 6,323.21
20 50,585.71 40,468.56 32,374.85 26,756.08 16,861.9 16,187.43 12,646.43
50 126,464.26 101,171.41 80,937.13 66,890.19 42,154.75 40,468.56 31,616.07

This is the conversion that matters if your record is in UP or Rajasthan, where the digitised khatauni and jamabandi are kept in hectares and square metres rather than in bigha.

Bigha Square Meter
1 2,529.285264
2 5,058.570528
3 7,587.855792
5 12,646.42632
10 25,292.85264
20 50,585.70528
50 126,464.2632
100 252,928.5264
200 505,857.0528
500 1,264,642.632
1,000 2,529,285.264

Square Meter = Bigha × 2,529.285264 · reverse Bigha = Square Meter ÷ 2,529.285264

Bigha to Hectare

The unit your record probably uses. The UP Revenue Code 2006 states landholding ceilings in hectares and never mentions the bigha; Rajasthan's Apna Khata is largely in hectares.

1 Bigha in Hectares, by Region

Region 1 bigha (sq ft) 1 bigha in Hectares
UP pucca · Bihar (Patna) · Rajasthan pucca 27,225 0.25292853
Punjab (4 kanal) 21,780 0.20234282
Rajasthan kachha (Marwar) · Gujarat vigha 17,424 0.16187426
West Bengal · Assam · Jharkhand 14,400 0.13378038
Madhya Pradesh (unverified) 12,000 0.11148365
Delhi NCR 9,072 0.08428164
UP kachha (6⅔ biswa) 9,075 0.08430951
Himachal Pradesh · Haryana (Rohtak belt) 8,712 0.08093713
Haryana (Ambala belt) 8,100 0.07525146
UP kachha (5 biswa) · Uttarakhand hills 6,806.25 0.06323213

Number of bigha × the regional factor. Columns are the seven most common bighas.

Bigha UP pucca Punjab Raj kachha / Gujarat WB / Assam UP kachha 6⅔ Himachal UP kachha 5 / U-khand
1 0.252929 0.202343 0.161874 0.13378 0.08431 0.080937 0.063232
2 0.505857 0.404686 0.323749 0.267561 0.168619 0.161874 0.126464
5 1.264643 1.011714 0.809371 0.668902 0.421548 0.404686 0.316161
10 2.529285 2.023428 1.618743 1.337804 0.843095 0.809371 0.632321
20 5.058571 4.046856 3.237485 2.675608 1.68619 1.618743 1.264643
50 12.646426 10.117141 8.093713 6.689019 4.215475 4.046856 3.161607

1 hectare = 10,000 m² = 107,639.104167 sq ft. To go the other way, multiply hectares by 107,639.104167 and divide by your regional bigha.

Bigha Hectare
1 0.2529285264
2 0.5058570528
3 0.7587855792
5 1.264642632
10 2.529285264
20 5.058570528
50 12.64642632
100 25.29285264
200 50.58570528
500 126.4642632
1,000 252.9285264

Hectare = Bigha × 0.2529285264 · reverse Bigha = Hectare ÷ 0.2529285264

Bigha to Square Yard

The pattern here is the cleanest on the page. 3,025 · 2,420 · 1,936 · 1,600 · 968 · 756.25 square yards. Every major bigha is a round or near-round yard figure, because the rods were laid out in gaz.

1 Bigha in Square Yards, by Region

Region 1 bigha (sq ft) 1 bigha in Square Yards
UP pucca · Bihar (Patna) · Rajasthan pucca 27,225 3,025
Punjab (4 kanal) 21,780 2,420
Rajasthan kachha (Marwar) · Gujarat vigha 17,424 1,936
West Bengal · Assam · Jharkhand 14,400 1,600
Madhya Pradesh (unverified) 12,000 1,333.3333
Delhi NCR 9,072 1,008
UP kachha (6⅔ biswa) 9,075 1,008.3333
Himachal Pradesh · Haryana (Rohtak belt) 8,712 968
Haryana (Ambala belt) 8,100 900
UP kachha (5 biswa) · Uttarakhand hills 6,806.25 756.25

Number of bigha × the regional factor. Columns are the seven most common bighas.

Bigha UP pucca Punjab Raj kachha / Gujarat WB / Assam UP kachha 6⅔ Himachal UP kachha 5 / U-khand
1 3,025 2,420 1,936 1,600 1,008.33 968 756.25
2 6,050 4,840 3,872 3,200 2,016.67 1,936 1,512.5
5 15,125 12,100 9,680 8,000 5,041.67 4,840 3,781.25
10 30,250 24,200 19,360 16,000 10,083.33 9,680 7,562.5
20 60,500 48,400 38,720 32,000 20,166.67 19,360 15,125
50 151,250 121,000 96,800 80,000 50,416.67 48,400 37,812.5

In north Indian property usage the square yard is called gaj, so these are also the gaj figures.

Bigha Square Yard
1 3,025
2 6,050
3 9,075
5 15,125
10 30,250
20 60,500
50 151,250
100 302,500
200 605,000
500 1,512,500
1,000 3,025,000

Square Yard = Bigha × 3,025 · reverse Bigha = Square Yard ÷ 3,025

Bigha to Cent

A cent is exactly 1/100 acre (435.6 sq ft), so the cent column is simply the acre column times 100.

1 Bigha in Cent, by Region

Region 1 bigha (sq ft) 1 bigha in Cent
UP pucca · Bihar (Patna) · Rajasthan pucca 27,225 62.5
Punjab (4 kanal) 21,780 50
Rajasthan kachha (Marwar) · Gujarat vigha 17,424 40
West Bengal · Assam · Jharkhand 14,400 33.0579
Madhya Pradesh (unverified) 12,000 27.5482
Delhi NCR 9,072 20.8264
UP kachha (6⅔ biswa) 9,075 20.8333
Himachal Pradesh · Haryana (Rohtak belt) 8,712 20
Haryana (Ambala belt) 8,100 18.595
UP kachha (5 biswa) · Uttarakhand hills 6,806.25 15.625

Number of bigha × the regional factor. Columns are the seven most common bighas.

Bigha UP pucca Punjab Raj kachha / Gujarat WB / Assam UP kachha 6⅔ Himachal UP kachha 5 / U-khand
1 62.5 50 40 33.058 20.833 20 15.625
2 125 100 80 66.116 41.667 40 31.25
5 312.5 250 200 165.289 104.167 100 78.125
10 625 500 400 330.579 208.333 200 156.25
20 1,250 1,000 800 661.157 416.667 400 312.5
50 3,125 2,500 2,000 1,652.893 1,041.667 1,000 781.25

Cent is the working unit of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, and it is the same unit as the decimal or dismil of Bihar and Bengal, and the Bengali shatak.

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

Cent = Bigha × 62.5 · reverse Bigha = Cent × 0.016

Bigha to Guntha

Gujarat's vigha is exactly 16 guntha, which is the tidiest bigha–guntha relationship in India and one of the three chains that close for Gujarat.

1 Bigha in Guntha, by Region

Region 1 bigha (sq ft) 1 bigha in Guntha
UP pucca · Bihar (Patna) · Rajasthan pucca 27,225 25
Punjab (4 kanal) 21,780 20
Rajasthan kachha (Marwar) · Gujarat vigha 17,424 16
West Bengal · Assam · Jharkhand 14,400 13.2231
Madhya Pradesh (unverified) 12,000 11.0193
Delhi NCR 9,072 8.3306
UP kachha (6⅔ biswa) 9,075 8.3333
Himachal Pradesh · Haryana (Rohtak belt) 8,712 8
Haryana (Ambala belt) 8,100 7.438
UP kachha (5 biswa) · Uttarakhand hills 6,806.25 6.25

Number of bigha × the regional factor. Columns are the seven most common bighas.

Bigha UP pucca Punjab Raj kachha / Gujarat WB / Assam UP kachha 6⅔ Himachal UP kachha 5 / U-khand
1 25 20 16 13.223 8.333 8 6.25
2 50 40 32 26.446 16.667 16 12.5
5 125 100 80 66.116 41.667 40 31.25
10 250 200 160 132.231 83.333 80 62.5
20 500 400 320 264.463 166.667 160 125
50 1,250 1,000 800 661.157 416.667 400 312.5

A guntha is 1,089 sq ft (33 × 33 ft), standard across Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

Bigha Guntha
1 25
2 50
3 75
5 125
10 250
20 500
50 1,250
100 2,500
200 5,000
500 12,500
1,000 25,000

Guntha = Bigha × 25 · reverse Bigha = Guntha × 0.04

Bigha to Biswa

The most useful conversion in Uttar Pradesh. The biswa is constant at 1,361.25 sq ft wherever the 99-inch gatha applies, so a biswa figure is unambiguous where a bigha figure is not.

1 Bigha in Biswa (UP pucca chain), by Region

Region 1 bigha (sq ft) 1 bigha in Biswa (UP pucca chain)
UP pucca · Bihar (Patna) · Rajasthan pucca 27,225 20
Punjab (4 kanal) 21,780 16
Rajasthan kachha (Marwar) · Gujarat vigha 17,424 12.8
West Bengal · Assam · Jharkhand 14,400 10.5785
Madhya Pradesh (unverified) 12,000 8.8154
Delhi NCR 9,072 6.6645
UP kachha (6⅔ biswa) 9,075 6.6667
Himachal Pradesh · Haryana (Rohtak belt) 8,712 6.4
Haryana (Ambala belt) 8,100 5.9504
UP kachha (5 biswa) · Uttarakhand hills 6,806.25 5

1 Bigha in Himachal biswa (435.6 sq ft, = 1 cent), by Region

Region 1 bigha (sq ft) 1 bigha in Himachal biswa (435.6 sq ft, = 1 cent)
UP pucca · Bihar (Patna) · Rajasthan pucca 27,225 62.5
Punjab (4 kanal) 21,780 50
Rajasthan kachha (Marwar) · Gujarat vigha 17,424 40
West Bengal · Assam · Jharkhand 14,400 33.0579
Madhya Pradesh (unverified) 12,000 27.5482
Delhi NCR 9,072 20.8264
UP kachha (6⅔ biswa) 9,075 20.8333
Himachal Pradesh · Haryana (Rohtak belt) 8,712 20
Haryana (Ambala belt) 8,100 18.595
UP kachha (5 biswa) · Uttarakhand hills 6,806.25 15.625

1 Bigha in Rajasthan kachha biswa (871.2 sq ft), by Region

Region 1 bigha (sq ft) 1 bigha in Rajasthan kachha biswa (871.2 sq ft)
UP pucca · Bihar (Patna) · Rajasthan pucca 27,225 31.25
Punjab (4 kanal) 21,780 25
Rajasthan kachha (Marwar) · Gujarat vigha 17,424 20
West Bengal · Assam · Jharkhand 14,400 16.5289
Madhya Pradesh (unverified) 12,000 13.7741
Delhi NCR 9,072 10.4132
UP kachha (6⅔ biswa) 9,075 10.4167
Himachal Pradesh · Haryana (Rohtak belt) 8,712 10
Haryana (Ambala belt) 8,100 9.2975
UP kachha (5 biswa) · Uttarakhand hills 6,806.25 7.8125

Within the UP and Rajasthan pucca tradition the chain is fixed: 1 bigha = 20 biswa = 400 biswansi = 8,000 kachwansi. Where a different rod applies, Marwar's 132-ft square, the biswa is 871.2 sq ft, not 1,361.25, and the table above is not the right one to use.

Transact in biswa in UP. It removes the ambiguity entirely, and it is what older records use.

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

Biswa = Bigha × 20 (UP / Rajasthan pucca) · reverse Bigha = Biswa × 0.05

871.2 square feet either way, so the Bigha 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 Bigha to Biswa, Punjab / Haryana old records

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

Bigha to Katha

The chains diverge structurally, not just in size. West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand put 20 katha in a bigha; Assam puts 5.

1 Bigha in Katha (West Bengal, 720 sq ft), by Region

Region 1 bigha (sq ft) 1 bigha in Katha (West Bengal, 720 sq ft)
UP pucca · Bihar (Patna) · Rajasthan pucca 27,225 37.8125
Punjab (4 kanal) 21,780 30.25
Rajasthan kachha (Marwar) · Gujarat vigha 17,424 24.2
West Bengal · Assam · Jharkhand 14,400 20
Madhya Pradesh (unverified) 12,000 16.6667
Delhi NCR 9,072 12.6
UP kachha (6⅔ biswa) 9,075 12.6042
Himachal Pradesh · Haryana (Rohtak belt) 8,712 12.1
Haryana (Ambala belt) 8,100 11.25
UP kachha (5 biswa) · Uttarakhand hills 6,806.25 9.4531

1 Bigha in Bihar katha (Patna, 1,361.25 sq ft), by Region

Region 1 bigha (sq ft) 1 bigha in Bihar katha (Patna, 1,361.25 sq ft)
UP pucca · Bihar (Patna) · Rajasthan pucca 27,225 20
Punjab (4 kanal) 21,780 16
Rajasthan kachha (Marwar) · Gujarat vigha 17,424 12.8
West Bengal · Assam · Jharkhand 14,400 10.5785
Madhya Pradesh (unverified) 12,000 8.8154
Delhi NCR 9,072 6.6645
UP kachha (6⅔ biswa) 9,075 6.6667
Himachal Pradesh · Haryana (Rohtak belt) 8,712 6.4
Haryana (Ambala belt) 8,100 5.9504
UP kachha (5 biswa) · Uttarakhand hills 6,806.25 5

1 Bigha in Assam katha (2,880 sq ft), by Region

Region 1 bigha (sq ft) 1 bigha in Assam katha (2,880 sq ft)
UP pucca · Bihar (Patna) · Rajasthan pucca 27,225 9.4531
Punjab (4 kanal) 21,780 7.5625
Rajasthan kachha (Marwar) · Gujarat vigha 17,424 6.05
West Bengal · Assam · Jharkhand 14,400 5
Madhya Pradesh (unverified) 12,000 4.1667
Delhi NCR 9,072 3.15
UP kachha (6⅔ biswa) 9,075 3.151
Himachal Pradesh · Haryana (Rohtak belt) 8,712 3.025
Haryana (Ambala belt) 8,100 2.8125
UP kachha (5 biswa) · Uttarakhand hills 6,806.25 2.3633

That is why the Assam katha is 2,880 sq ft and the Bengal katha is 720. Four times the size, in states that share an identical 14,400 sq ft bigha. Assam's Cachar and Barak Valley are the exception, using the Bengali 720 sq ft katha.

Bihar's katha varies by district along with its bigha: 1,361.25 sq ft in Patna, 1,742.4 in Chhapra, 1,901.25 in Hajipur, 3,267 in Bettiah. Bihar's own revenue glossary concedes the variation.

Bigha Katha (Bihar state standard)
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

Katha = Bigha × 20 (Bihar state standard) · reverse Bigha = Katha × 0.05

Popular Bigha to Katha, West Bengal / Jharkhand

Bigha Katha (720 sq ft)
1 37.8125
2 75.625
3 113.4375
5 189.0625
10 378.125
20 756.25
50 1,890.625
100 3,781.25
200 7,562.5
500 18,906.25
1,000 37,812.5
Bigha Katha (2,880 sq ft)
1 9.453125
2 18.90625
3 28.359375
5 47.265625
10 94.53125
20 189.0625
50 472.65625
100 945.3125
200 1,890.625
500 4,726.5625
1,000 9,453.125
Bigha Katha (1,742.4 sq ft)
1 15.625
2 31.25
3 46.875
5 78.125
10 156.25
20 312.5
50 781.25
100 1,562.5
200 3,125
500 7,812.5
1,000 15,625
Bigha Katha (1,901.25 sq ft)
1 14.319527
2 28.639053
3 42.95858
5 71.597633
10 143.195266
20 286.390533
50 715.976331
100 1,431.952663
200 2,863.905325
500 7,159.763314
1,000 14,319.526627
Bigha Katha (3,267 sq ft)
1 8.333333
2 16.666667
3 25
5 41.666667
10 83.333333
20 166.666667
50 416.666667
100 833.333333
200 1,666.666667
500 4,166.666667
1,000 8,333.333333

Bigha to Kanal

In Punjab this is definitional: 1 bigha = 4 kanal exactly, which is why the Punjab bigha is exactly half an acre.

1 Bigha in Kanal (standard 5,445 sq ft), by Region

Region 1 bigha (sq ft) 1 bigha in Kanal (standard 5,445 sq ft)
UP pucca · Bihar (Patna) · Rajasthan pucca 27,225 5
Punjab (4 kanal) 21,780 4
Rajasthan kachha (Marwar) · Gujarat vigha 17,424 3.2
West Bengal · Assam · Jharkhand 14,400 2.6446
Madhya Pradesh (unverified) 12,000 2.2039
Delhi NCR 9,072 1.6661
UP kachha (6⅔ biswa) 9,075 1.6667
Himachal Pradesh · Haryana (Rohtak belt) 8,712 1.6
Haryana (Ambala belt) 8,100 1.4876
UP kachha (5 biswa) · Uttarakhand hills 6,806.25 1.25

The standard kanal is 5,445 sq ft under the 66-inch karam. Three other karams survive in unconsolidated parts of Punjab (60 inches (Majha, kanal 4,500 sq ft), 57.5 inches (Doaba, 4,132.81) and 54 inches (Kapurthala, 3,645)), and in those belts the bigha–kanal relationship still holds at 4, but the absolute areas shift.

Punjab and Haryana jamabandi is kept in kanal and marla, not bigha. If you have a record rather than a conversation, work in kanal.

Bigha Kanal (Standard (66-inch karam))
1 5
2 10
3 15
5 25
10 50
20 100
50 250
100 500
200 1,000
500 2,500
1,000 5,000

Kanal = Bigha × 5 (Standard (66-inch karam)) · reverse Bigha = Kanal × 0.2

Bigha Kanal (4,500 sq ft)
1 6.05
2 12.1
3 18.15
5 30.25
10 60.5
20 121
50 302.5
100 605
200 1,210
500 3,025
1,000 6,050
Bigha Kanal (4,132.8125 sq ft)
1 6.587524
2 13.175047
3 19.762571
5 32.937618
10 65.875236
20 131.750473
50 329.376181
100 658.752363
200 1,317.504726
500 3,293.761815
1,000 6,587.523629
Bigha Kanal (3,645 sq ft)
1 7.469136
2 14.938272
3 22.407407
5 37.345679
10 74.691358
20 149.382716
50 373.45679
100 746.91358
200 1,493.82716
500 3,734.567901
1,000 7,469.135802

Bigha to Marla

1 bigha = 80 marla in Punjab (4 kanal × 20 marla), and the standard marla is exactly one square perch.

1 Bigha in Marla (standard 272.25 sq ft), by Region

Region 1 bigha (sq ft) 1 bigha in Marla (standard 272.25 sq ft)
UP pucca · Bihar (Patna) · Rajasthan pucca 27,225 100
Punjab (4 kanal) 21,780 80
Rajasthan kachha (Marwar) · Gujarat vigha 17,424 64
West Bengal · Assam · Jharkhand 14,400 52.893
Madhya Pradesh (unverified) 12,000 44.077
Delhi NCR 9,072 33.322
UP kachha (6⅔ biswa) 9,075 33.333
Himachal Pradesh · Haryana (Rohtak belt) 8,712 32
Haryana (Ambala belt) 8,100 29.752
UP kachha (5 biswa) · Uttarakhand hills 6,806.25 25

Belt caveat: standard 272.25 sq ft · Majha 225 · Doaba 206.64 · Kapurthala 182.25. A widely-copied reference claims the marla was "standardized in India to 25 square yards" (225 sq ft); Indian revenue records use 30.25 sq yd (272.25 sq ft), and 225 is the Majha variant.

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

Marla = Bigha × 100 (Standard (66-inch karam)) · reverse Bigha = Marla × 0.01

Bigha Marla (225 sq ft)
1 121
2 242
3 363
5 605
10 1,210
20 2,420
50 6,050
100 12,100
200 24,200
500 60,500
1,000 121,000
Bigha Marla (206.640625 sq ft)
1 131.750473
2 263.500945
3 395.251418
5 658.752363
10 1,317.504726
20 2,635.009452
50 6,587.523629
100 13,175.047259
200 26,350.094518
500 65,875.236295
1,000 131,750.47259
Bigha Marla (182.25 sq ft)
1 149.382716
2 298.765432
3 448.148148
5 746.91358
10 1,493.82716
20 2,987.654321
50 7,469.135802
100 14,938.271605
200 29,876.54321
500 74,691.358025
1,000 149,382.716049

225 square feet either way, so the Bigha 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.

Bigha to Dhur

In Bihar this is definitional: 1 bigha = 400 dhur (20 katha × 20 dhur).

1 Bigha in Dhur (Bihar, 68.0625 sq ft), by Region

Region 1 bigha (sq ft) 1 bigha in Dhur (Bihar, 68.0625 sq ft)
UP pucca · Bihar (Patna) · Rajasthan pucca 27,225 400
Punjab (4 kanal) 21,780 320
Rajasthan kachha (Marwar) · Gujarat vigha 17,424 256
West Bengal · Assam · Jharkhand 14,400 211.57
Madhya Pradesh (unverified) 12,000 176.309
Delhi NCR 9,072 133.289
UP kachha (6⅔ biswa) 9,075 133.333
Himachal Pradesh · Haryana (Rohtak belt) 8,712 128
Haryana (Ambala belt) 8,100 119.008
UP kachha (5 biswa) · Uttarakhand hills 6,806.25 100

The dhur is the most dangerous word in Indian land measurement. A Bihar dhur is 68.0625 sq ft; a Nepal Terai dhur is 182.25; a Tripura dhur is 3.6. Fifty dhur is 3,403 sq ft in Patna and 180 sq ft in Agartala.

A quiet coincidence: the Bihar dhur is exactly the same 68.0625 sq ft as the UP biswansi. Two states inherited one Mughal subdivision and renamed it.

Bigha Dhur (Bihar / Jharkhand (Patna chain))
1 400
2 800
3 1,200
5 2,000
10 4,000
20 8,000
50 20,000
100 40,000
200 80,000
500 200,000
1,000 400,000

Dhur = Bigha × 400 (Bihar / Jharkhand (Patna chain)) · reverse Bigha = Dhur × 0.0025

Bigha Dhur (3.6 sq ft)
1 7,562.5
2 15,125
3 22,687.5
5 37,812.5
10 75,625
20 151,250
50 378,125
100 756,250
200 1,512,500
500 3,781,250
1,000 7,562,500

Bigha to Chatak

1 West Bengal bigha = 320 chatak (20 katha × 16 chatak).

1 Bigha in Chatak (West Bengal, 45 sq ft), by Region

Region 1 bigha (sq ft) 1 bigha in Chatak (West Bengal, 45 sq ft)
UP pucca · Bihar (Patna) · Rajasthan pucca 27,225 605
Punjab (4 kanal) 21,780 484
Rajasthan kachha (Marwar) · Gujarat vigha 17,424 387.2
West Bengal · Assam · Jharkhand 14,400 320
Madhya Pradesh (unverified) 12,000 266.667
Delhi NCR 9,072 201.6
UP kachha (6⅔ biswa) 9,075 201.667
Himachal Pradesh · Haryana (Rohtak belt) 8,712 193.6
Haryana (Ambala belt) 8,100 180
UP kachha (5 biswa) · Uttarakhand hills 6,806.25 151.25

The chatak is 45 sq ft, 5 square yards, and appears to be the floor of the Bengal system; we found no smaller unit below it.

Bigha Chatak
1 605
2 1,210
3 1,815
5 3,025
10 6,050
20 12,100
50 30,250
100 60,500
200 121,000
500 302,500
1,000 605,000

Chatak = Bigha × 605 · reverse Bigha = Chatak ÷ 605

Bigha to Lessa

1 Assam bigha = 100 lessa (5 katha × 20 lessa).

1 Bigha in Lessa (Assam, 144 sq ft), by Region

Region 1 bigha (sq ft) 1 bigha in Lessa (Assam, 144 sq ft)
UP pucca · Bihar (Patna) · Rajasthan pucca 27,225 189.063
Punjab (4 kanal) 21,780 151.25
Rajasthan kachha (Marwar) · Gujarat vigha 17,424 121
West Bengal · Assam · Jharkhand 14,400 100
Madhya Pradesh (unverified) 12,000 83.333
Delhi NCR 9,072 63
UP kachha (6⅔ biswa) 9,075 63.021
Himachal Pradesh · Haryana (Rohtak belt) 8,712 60.5
Haryana (Ambala belt) 8,100 56.25
UP kachha (5 biswa) · Uttarakhand hills 6,806.25 47.266

The lessa (lecha) is a 12 × 12 ft square. Assam is the one state whose live digitised record, Dharitree, still carries bigha, katha and lessa alongside hectare and acre.

Bigha Lessa
1 189.0625
2 378.125
3 567.1875
5 945.3125
10 1,890.625
20 3,781.25
50 9,453.125
100 18,906.25
200 37,812.5
500 94,531.25
1,000 189,062.5

Lessa = Bigha × 189.0625 · reverse Bigha = Lessa ÷ 189.0625

Bigha to Biswansi

1 pucca bigha = 400 biswansi, the third rung of the UP and Rajasthan chain.

1 Bigha in Biswansi (68.0625 sq ft), by Region

Region 1 bigha (sq ft) 1 bigha in Biswansi (68.0625 sq ft)
UP pucca · Bihar (Patna) · Rajasthan pucca 27,225 400
Punjab (4 kanal) 21,780 320
Rajasthan kachha (Marwar) · Gujarat vigha 17,424 256
West Bengal · Assam · Jharkhand 14,400 211.57
Madhya Pradesh (unverified) 12,000 176.309
Delhi NCR 9,072 133.289
UP kachha (6⅔ biswa) 9,075 133.333
Himachal Pradesh · Haryana (Rohtak belt) 8,712 128
Haryana (Ambala belt) 8,100 119.008
UP kachha (5 biswa) · Uttarakhand hills 6,806.25 100

Below it sits the kachwansi at 3.403125 sq ft, 8,000 to the pucca bigha. The Ain-i-Akbari records the chain running further still (tiswanseh, pitwanseh, unswanseh) with the dry note that "all the divisions below the tiswanseh are imaginary."

Bigha to Ares

An are is 100 m². It is the middle column of a Maharashtra or Gujarat 7/12 extract and, under the Legal Metrology (National Standards) Rules 2011, India's first named unit of land area.

1 Bigha in Ares, by Region

Region 1 bigha (sq ft) 1 bigha in Ares
UP pucca · Bihar (Patna) · Rajasthan pucca 27,225 25.2929
Punjab (4 kanal) 21,780 20.2343
Rajasthan kachha (Marwar) · Gujarat vigha 17,424 16.1874
West Bengal · Assam · Jharkhand 14,400 13.378
Madhya Pradesh (unverified) 12,000 11.1484
Delhi NCR 9,072 8.4282
UP kachha (6⅔ biswa) 9,075 8.431
Himachal Pradesh · Haryana (Rohtak belt) 8,712 8.0937
Haryana (Ambala belt) 8,100 7.5251
UP kachha (5 biswa) · Uttarakhand hills 6,806.25 6.3232

Watch the guntha collision here: 1 are (1,076.391 sq ft) is not 1 guntha (1,089 sq ft). The guntha is 1.1714% larger, and 1 hectare is 98.84 gunthas, not 100.

Bigha Ares
1 25.29285264
2 50.58570528
3 75.87855792
5 126.4642632
10 252.9285264
20 505.8570528
50 1,264.642632
100 2,529.285264
200 5,058.570528
500 12,646.42632
1,000 25,292.85264

Ares = Bigha × 25.29285264 · reverse Bigha = Ares ÷ 25.29285264

Bigha to Gaj

Gaj is the square yard, so this table is the square-yard table under the name north Indian listings actually use.

1 Bigha in Square Gaj, by Region

Region 1 bigha (sq ft) 1 bigha in Square Gaj
UP pucca · Bihar (Patna) · Rajasthan pucca 27,225 3,025
Punjab (4 kanal) 21,780 2,420
Rajasthan kachha (Marwar) · Gujarat vigha 17,424 1,936
West Bengal · Assam · Jharkhand 14,400 1,600
Madhya Pradesh (unverified) 12,000 1,333.3333
Delhi NCR 9,072 1,008
UP kachha (6⅔ biswa) 9,075 1,008.3333
Himachal Pradesh · Haryana (Rohtak belt) 8,712 968
Haryana (Ambala belt) 8,100 900
UP kachha (5 biswa) · Uttarakhand hills 6,806.25 756.25

Strictly gaj is a unit of length (a yard, from the Mughal gaz), and property usage drops the word "square" by convention. That is the same gaz whose variability created the bigha problem in the first place: the bigha is 60 gaz square, and the gaz was never fixed.

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

Gaj = Bigha × 3,025 · reverse Bigha = Gaj ÷ 3,025

Bigha to Decimal

A decimal is exactly 1/100 acre, 435.6 sq ft, and it is the same unit as the southern cent and the Bengali shatak.

1 Bigha in Decimal, by Region

Region 1 bigha (sq ft) 1 bigha in Decimal
UP pucca · Bihar (Patna) · Rajasthan pucca 27,225 62.5
Punjab (4 kanal) 21,780 50
Rajasthan kachha (Marwar) · Gujarat vigha 17,424 40
West Bengal · Assam · Jharkhand 14,400 33.0579
Madhya Pradesh (unverified) 12,000 27.5482
Delhi NCR 9,072 20.8264
UP kachha (6⅔ biswa) 9,075 20.8333
Himachal Pradesh · Haryana (Rohtak belt) 8,712 20
Haryana (Ambala belt) 8,100 18.595
UP kachha (5 biswa) · Uttarakhand hills 6,806.25 15.625

This is the unit Bihar and Jharkhand khatiyans actually use, so for an eastern reader it is often the number that matters more than the bigha. Bihar's revenue glossary defines it directly: "Dismil… ~435.6 sq ft, equal to 1/100 acre."

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

Decimal = Bigha × 62.5 · reverse Bigha = Decimal × 0.016

Bigha to Dismil

Dismil and decimal are the same word and the same unit, 435.6 sq ft, 1/100 acre.

1 Bigha in Dismil, by Region

Region 1 bigha (sq ft) 1 bigha in Dismil
UP pucca · Bihar (Patna) · Rajasthan pucca 27,225 62.5
Punjab (4 kanal) 21,780 50
Rajasthan kachha (Marwar) · Gujarat vigha 17,424 40
West Bengal · Assam · Jharkhand 14,400 33.0579
Madhya Pradesh (unverified) 12,000 27.5482
Delhi NCR 9,072 20.8264
UP kachha (6⅔ biswa) 9,075 20.8333
Himachal Pradesh · Haryana (Rohtak belt) 8,712 20
Haryana (Ambala belt) 8,100 18.595
UP kachha (5 biswa) · Uttarakhand hills 6,806.25 15.625

Dismil and decimil are phonetic renderings of "decimal." If a document quotes dismil and another quotes decimal, no conversion is needed, check the two figures match, because if they do not, one is a transcription error rather than a unit difference.

Bigha Dismil
1 62.5
2 125
3 187.5
5 312.5
10 625
20 1,250
50 3,125
100 6,250
200 12,500
500 31,250
1,000 62,500

Dismil = Bigha × 62.5 · reverse Bigha = Dismil × 0.016

Bigha to Ankanam

1 Bigha in Ankanam (72 sq ft), by Region

Region 1 bigha (sq ft) 1 bigha in Ankanam (72 sq ft)
UP pucca · Bihar (Patna) · Rajasthan pucca 27,225 378.125
Punjab (4 kanal) 21,780 302.5
Rajasthan kachha (Marwar) · Gujarat vigha 17,424 242
West Bengal · Assam · Jharkhand 14,400 200
Madhya Pradesh (unverified) 12,000 166.667
Delhi NCR 9,072 126
UP kachha (6⅔ biswa) 9,075 126.042
Himachal Pradesh · Haryana (Rohtak belt) 8,712 121
Haryana (Ambala belt) 8,100 112.5
UP kachha (5 biswa) · Uttarakhand hills 6,806.25 94.531

The ankanam is a residential-plot unit in parts of Andhra Pradesh, with no official definition anywhere and a second value of 36 sq ft around Tirupati. A cross-system comparison, not a document conversion. No record carries both units.

Bigha Ankanam (Standard)
1 378.125
2 756.25
3 1,134.375
5 1,890.625
10 3,781.25
20 7,562.5
50 18,906.25
100 37,812.5
200 75,625
500 189,062.5
1,000 378,125

Ankanam = Bigha × 378.125 (Standard) · reverse Bigha = Ankanam ÷ 378.125

Bigha Ankanam (36 sq ft)
1 756.25
2 1,512.5
3 2,268.75
5 3,781.25
10 7,562.5
20 15,125
50 37,812.5
100 75,625
200 151,250
500 378,125
1,000 756,250

Bigha to Gajam

1 Bigha in Gajam, by Region

Region 1 bigha (sq ft) 1 bigha in Gajam
UP pucca · Bihar (Patna) · Rajasthan pucca 27,225 3,025
Punjab (4 kanal) 21,780 2,420
Rajasthan kachha (Marwar) · Gujarat vigha 17,424 1,936
West Bengal · Assam · Jharkhand 14,400 1,600
Madhya Pradesh (unverified) 12,000 1,333.3333
Delhi NCR 9,072 1,008
UP kachha (6⅔ biswa) 9,075 1,008.3333
Himachal Pradesh · Haryana (Rohtak belt) 8,712 968
Haryana (Ambala belt) 8,100 900
UP kachha (5 biswa) · Uttarakhand hills 6,806.25 756.25

Gajam (గజం) is the Telugu word for yard, used in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana property to mean square yard, so this is the square-yard table under a southern name.

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

Gajam = Bigha × 3,025 · reverse Bigha = Gajam ÷ 3,025

Bigha to Ground

1 Bigha in Ground (2,400 sq ft), by Region

Region 1 bigha (sq ft) 1 bigha in Ground (2,400 sq ft)
UP pucca · Bihar (Patna) · Rajasthan pucca 27,225 11.3438
Punjab (4 kanal) 21,780 9.075
Rajasthan kachha (Marwar) · Gujarat vigha 17,424 7.26
West Bengal · Assam · Jharkhand 14,400 6
Madhya Pradesh (unverified) 12,000 5
Delhi NCR 9,072 3.78
UP kachha (6⅔ biswa) 9,075 3.7813
Himachal Pradesh · Haryana (Rohtak belt) 8,712 3.63
Haryana (Ambala belt) 8,100 3.375
UP kachha (5 biswa) · Uttarakhand hills 6,806.25 2.8359

The ground is the Chennai plot unit, 60 × 40 ft. Tamil Nadu records do not use bigha and northern records do not use ground; this is for comparing holdings across regions.

Bigha Ground
1 11.34375
2 22.6875
3 34.03125
5 56.71875
10 113.4375
20 226.875
50 567.1875
100 1,134.375
200 2,268.75
500 5,671.875
1,000 11,343.75

Ground = Bigha × 11.34375 · reverse Bigha = Ground ÷ 11.34375

Bigha to Killa

1 Bigha in Killa, by Region

Region 1 bigha (sq ft) 1 bigha in Killa
UP pucca · Bihar (Patna) · Rajasthan pucca 27,225 0.625
Punjab (4 kanal) 21,780 0.5
Rajasthan kachha (Marwar) · Gujarat vigha 17,424 0.4
West Bengal · Assam · Jharkhand 14,400 0.330579
Madhya Pradesh (unverified) 12,000 0.275482
Delhi NCR 9,072 0.208264
UP kachha (6⅔ biswa) 9,075 0.208333
Himachal Pradesh · Haryana (Rohtak belt) 8,712 0.2
Haryana (Ambala belt) 8,100 0.18595
UP kachha (5 biswa) · Uttarakhand hills 6,806.25 0.15625

Killa is the Punjab and Haryana word for an acre, so this is identical to Bigha to Acre. Note the neatness in Punjab: 1 killa = 2 bigha = 8 kanal = 160 marla.

Bigha Killa
1 0.625
2 1.25
3 1.875
5 3.125
10 6.25
20 12.5
50 31.25
100 62.5
200 125
500 312.5
1,000 625

Killa = Bigha × 0.625 · reverse Bigha = Killa × 1.6

Bigha to Murabba

1 Bigha in Murabba, by Region

Region 1 bigha (sq ft) 1 bigha in Murabba
UP pucca · Bihar (Patna) · Rajasthan pucca 27,225 0.025
Punjab (4 kanal) 21,780 0.02
Rajasthan kachha (Marwar) · Gujarat vigha 17,424 0.016
West Bengal · Assam · Jharkhand 14,400 0.013223
Madhya Pradesh (unverified) 12,000 0.011019
Delhi NCR 9,072 0.008331
UP kachha (6⅔ biswa) 9,075 0.008333
Himachal Pradesh · Haryana (Rohtak belt) 8,712 0.008
Haryana (Ambala belt) 8,100 0.007438
UP kachha (5 biswa) · Uttarakhand hills 6,806.25 0.00625

A murabba is the Punjab canal-colony block of 25 acres. In Punjab terms, 1 murabba = 50 bigha exactly.

Bigha Murabba (Punjab canal colony)
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

Murabba = Bigha × 0.025 (Punjab canal colony) · reverse Bigha = Murabba × 40

Bigha Murabba (680,625 sq ft)
1 0.04
2 0.08
3 0.12
5 0.2
10 0.4
20 0.8
50 2
100 4
200 8
500 20
1,000 40

Bigha to Nali

1 Bigha in Nali (2,160 sq ft), by Region

Region 1 bigha (sq ft) 1 bigha in Nali (2,160 sq ft)
UP pucca · Bihar (Patna) · Rajasthan pucca 27,225 12.6042
Punjab (4 kanal) 21,780 10.0833
Rajasthan kachha (Marwar) · Gujarat vigha 17,424 8.0667
West Bengal · Assam · Jharkhand 14,400 6.6667
Madhya Pradesh (unverified) 12,000 5.5556
Delhi NCR 9,072 4.2
UP kachha (6⅔ biswa) 9,075 4.2014
Himachal Pradesh · Haryana (Rohtak belt) 8,712 4.0333
Haryana (Ambala belt) 8,100 3.75
UP kachha (5 biswa) · Uttarakhand hills 6,806.25 3.151

The nali is the terraced-land unit of the Uttarakhand hills, and for hill land it is the unit to use. It is stable at 2,160 sq ft across every source, while the hill bigha is not.

Bigha Nali
1 12.604167
2 25.208333
3 37.8125
5 63.020833
10 126.041667
20 252.083333
50 630.208333
100 1,260.416667
200 2,520.833333
500 6,302.083333
1,000 12,604.166667

Nali = Bigha × 605/48 · reverse Bigha = Nali × 48/605

Bigha to Perch

1 Bigha in Perch (272.25 sq ft), by Region

Region 1 bigha (sq ft) 1 bigha in Perch (272.25 sq ft)
UP pucca · Bihar (Patna) · Rajasthan pucca 27,225 100
Punjab (4 kanal) 21,780 80
Rajasthan kachha (Marwar) · Gujarat vigha 17,424 64
West Bengal · Assam · Jharkhand 14,400 52.893
Madhya Pradesh (unverified) 12,000 44.077
Delhi NCR 9,072 33.322
UP kachha (6⅔ biswa) 9,075 33.333
Himachal Pradesh · Haryana (Rohtak belt) 8,712 32
Haryana (Ambala belt) 8,100 29.752
UP kachha (5 biswa) · Uttarakhand hills 6,806.25 25

A square perch is 272.25 sq ft, exactly the same size as a standard Punjab marla. The perch is the standard small unit in Sri Lanka; we could not verify current use in Indian land records.

Bigha Perch
1 100
2 200
3 300
5 500
10 1,000
20 2,000
50 5,000
100 10,000
200 20,000
500 50,000
1,000 100,000

Perch = Bigha × 100 · reverse Bigha = Perch × 0.01

Bigha to Pura

1 Bigha in Pura (Assam, 57,600 sq ft), by Region

Region 1 bigha (sq ft) 1 bigha in Pura (Assam, 57,600 sq ft)
UP pucca · Bihar (Patna) · Rajasthan pucca 27,225 0.47266
Punjab (4 kanal) 21,780 0.37813
Rajasthan kachha (Marwar) · Gujarat vigha 17,424 0.3025
West Bengal · Assam · Jharkhand 14,400 0.25
Madhya Pradesh (unverified) 12,000 0.20833
Delhi NCR 9,072 0.1575
UP kachha (6⅔ biswa) 9,075 0.15755
Himachal Pradesh · Haryana (Rohtak belt) 8,712 0.15125
Haryana (Ambala belt) 8,100 0.14063
UP kachha (5 biswa) · Uttarakhand hills 6,806.25 0.11816

Pura is an informal Assam and Nagaland unit for large holdings: 4 bigha, which makes it the one cross-unit relationship on this page that is defined in terms of the bigha. We found no government source for it anywhere.

Bigha Pura
1 0.47265625
2 0.9453125
3 1.41796875
5 2.36328125
10 4.7265625
20 9.453125
50 23.6328125
100 47.265625
200 94.53125
500 236.328125
1,000 472.65625

Pura = Bigha × 0.47265625 · reverse Bigha = Pura ÷ 0.47265625

Bigha to Square Karam

1 Bigha in Square Karam (30.25 sq ft), by Region

Region 1 bigha (sq ft) 1 bigha in Square Karam (30.25 sq ft)
UP pucca · Bihar (Patna) · Rajasthan pucca 27,225 900
Punjab (4 kanal) 21,780 720
Rajasthan kachha (Marwar) · Gujarat vigha 17,424 576
West Bengal · Assam · Jharkhand 14,400 476.033
Madhya Pradesh (unverified) 12,000 396.694
Delhi NCR 9,072 299.901
UP kachha (6⅔ biswa) 9,075 300
Himachal Pradesh · Haryana (Rohtak belt) 8,712 288
Haryana (Ambala belt) 8,100 267.769
UP kachha (5 biswa) · Uttarakhand hills 6,806.25 225

A square karam (sarsahi) is the smallest unit of the Punjab jamabandi. Nine sarsahi make one marla in every karam belt. That ratio is fixed; only the absolute size moves.

Bigha Square Karam (Standard (66-inch karam))
1 900
2 1,800
3 2,700
5 4,500
10 9,000
20 18,000
50 45,000
100 90,000
200 180,000
500 450,000
1,000 900,000

Square Karam = Bigha × 900 (Standard (66-inch karam)) · reverse Bigha = Square Karam ÷ 900

Bigha Square Karam (25 sq ft)
1 1,089
2 2,178
3 3,267
5 5,445
10 10,890
20 21,780
50 54,450
100 108,900
200 217,800
500 544,500
1,000 1,089,000
Bigha Square Karam (22.960069 sq ft)
1 1,185.754253
2 2,371.508507
3 3,557.26276
5 5,928.771267
10 11,857.542533
20 23,715.085066
50 59,287.712665
100 118,575.425331
200 237,150.850662
500 592,877.126654
1,000 1,185,754.253308
Bigha Square Karam (20.25 sq ft)
1 1,344.444444
2 2,688.888889
3 4,033.333333
5 6,722.222222
10 13,444.444444
20 26,888.888889
50 67,222.222222
100 134,444.444444
200 268,888.888889
500 672,222.222222
1,000 1,344,444.444444

Bigha to Biswa Kacha

1 Bigha in Biswa Kacha (453.75 sq ft), by Region

Region 1 bigha (sq ft) 1 bigha in Biswa Kacha (453.75 sq ft)
UP pucca · Bihar (Patna) · Rajasthan pucca 27,225 60
Punjab (4 kanal) 21,780 48
Rajasthan kachha (Marwar) · Gujarat vigha 17,424 38.4
West Bengal · Assam · Jharkhand 14,400 31.7355
Madhya Pradesh (unverified) 12,000 26.4463
Delhi NCR 9,072 19.9934
UP kachha (6⅔ biswa) 9,075 20
Himachal Pradesh · Haryana (Rohtak belt) 8,712 19.2
Haryana (Ambala belt) 8,100 17.8512
UP kachha (5 biswa) · Uttarakhand hills 6,806.25 15

The revenue definition: a kachha biswa is one-third of a pucca biswa, 453.75 sq ft, derivable independently as 15 square karam. Several property portals define it as larger than a pucca biswa, which inverts the meaning of kachha; no revenue source supports that.

Bigha Biswa Kacha (Punjab / Haryana revenue)
1 60
2 120
3 180
5 300
10 600
20 1,200
50 3,000
100 6,000
200 12,000
500 30,000
1,000 60,000

Biswa Kacha = Bigha × 31.25 (Rajasthan kachha reading) · reverse Bigha = Biswa Kacha × 0.032

Bigha Biswa Kacha (871.2 sq ft)
1 31.25
2 62.5
3 93.75
5 156.25
10 312.5
20 625
50 1,562.5
100 3,125
200 6,250
500 15,625
1,000 31,250

Bigha to Square Inch

1 Bigha in Square Inches, by Region

Region 1 bigha (sq ft) 1 bigha in Square Inches
UP pucca · Bihar (Patna) · Rajasthan pucca 27,225 3,920,400
Punjab (4 kanal) 21,780 3,136,320
Rajasthan kachha (Marwar) · Gujarat vigha 17,424 2,509,056
West Bengal · Assam · Jharkhand 14,400 2,073,600
Madhya Pradesh (unverified) 12,000 1,728,000
Delhi NCR 9,072 1,306,368
UP kachha (6⅔ biswa) 9,075 1,306,800
Himachal Pradesh · Haryana (Rohtak belt) 8,712 1,254,528
Haryana (Ambala belt) 8,100 1,166,400
UP kachha (5 biswa) · Uttarakhand hills 6,806.25 980,100

Formula: regional square feet × 144.

Bigha Square Inch
1 3,920,400
2 7,840,800
3 11,761,200
5 19,602,000
10 39,204,000
20 78,408,000
50 196,020,000
100 392,040,000
200 784,080,000
500 1,960,200,000
1,000 3,920,400,000

Square Inch = Bigha × 3,920,400 · reverse Bigha = Square Inch ÷ 3,920,400

Bigha to Square Centimeter

1 Bigha in Square Centimetres, by Region

Region 1 bigha (sq ft) 1 bigha in Square Centimetres
UP pucca · Bihar (Patna) · Rajasthan pucca 27,225 25,292,853
Punjab (4 kanal) 21,780 20,234,282
Rajasthan kachha (Marwar) · Gujarat vigha 17,424 16,187,426
West Bengal · Assam · Jharkhand 14,400 13,378,038
Madhya Pradesh (unverified) 12,000 11,148,365
Delhi NCR 9,072 8,428,164
UP kachha (6⅔ biswa) 9,075 8,430,951
Himachal Pradesh · Haryana (Rohtak belt) 8,712 8,093,713
Haryana (Ambala belt) 8,100 7,525,146
UP kachha (5 biswa) · Uttarakhand hills 6,806.25 6,323,213

Formula: regional square metres × 10,000.

Bigha Square Centimeter
1 25,292,852.64
2 50,585,705.28
3 75,878,557.92
5 126,464,263.2
10 252,928,526.4
20 505,857,052.8
50 1,264,642,632
100 2,529,285,264
200 5,058,570,528
500 12,646,426,320
1,000 25,292,852,640

Square Centimeter = Bigha × 25,292,852.64 · reverse Bigha = Square Centimeter ÷ 25,292,852.64

Bigha to Square Kilometer

1 Bigha in Square Kilometres, by Region

Region 1 bigha (sq ft) 1 bigha in Square Kilometres
UP pucca · Bihar (Patna) · Rajasthan pucca 27,225 0.00252929
Punjab (4 kanal) 21,780 0.00202343
Rajasthan kachha (Marwar) · Gujarat vigha 17,424 0.00161874
West Bengal · Assam · Jharkhand 14,400 0.0013378
Madhya Pradesh (unverified) 12,000 0.00111484
Delhi NCR 9,072 0.00084282
UP kachha (6⅔ biswa) 9,075 0.0008431
Himachal Pradesh · Haryana (Rohtak belt) 8,712 0.00080937
Haryana (Ambala belt) 8,100 0.00075251
UP kachha (5 biswa) · Uttarakhand hills 6,806.25 0.00063232

Formula: regional square metres ÷ 1,000,000. Ten thousand ares make a square kilometre.

Bigha Square Kilometer
1 0.002529285264
2 0.005058570528
3 0.007587855792
5 0.01264642632
10 0.02529285264
20 0.05058570528
50 0.1264642632
100 0.2529285264
200 0.5058570528
500 1.264642632
1,000 2.529285264

Square Kilometer = Bigha × 0.002529285264 · reverse Bigha = Square Kilometer ÷ 0.002529285264

Bigha to Square Mile

1 Bigha in Square Miles, by Region

Region 1 bigha (sq ft) 1 bigha in Square Miles
UP pucca · Bihar (Patna) · Rajasthan pucca 27,225 0.00097656
Punjab (4 kanal) 21,780 0.00078125
Rajasthan kachha (Marwar) · Gujarat vigha 17,424 0.000625
West Bengal · Assam · Jharkhand 14,400 0.00051653
Madhya Pradesh (unverified) 12,000 0.00043044
Delhi NCR 9,072 0.00032541
UP kachha (6⅔ biswa) 9,075 0.00032552
Himachal Pradesh · Haryana (Rohtak belt) 8,712 0.0003125
Haryana (Ambala belt) 8,100 0.00029055
UP kachha (5 biswa) · Uttarakhand hills 6,806.25 0.00024414

Formula: regional acres ÷ 640. A square mile is exactly 640 acres.

Bigha Square Mile
1 0.0009765625
2 0.001953125
3 0.0029296875
5 0.0048828125
10 0.009765625
20 0.01953125
50 0.048828125
100 0.09765625
200 0.1953125
500 0.48828125
1,000 0.9765625

Square Mile = Bigha × 0.0009765625 · reverse Bigha = Square Mile × 1,024

How to Check a Bigha Figure

The bigha is the one unit in this series where the checking procedure matters more than any conversion factor. Here is one that works anywhere.

The Procedure

1. Get the area in square feet or square metres, in writing. From the sale deed, the agreement, or the approved layout. Not from a listing and not verbally.

2. Divide by the bigha count you were given.

Square feet ÷ number of bigha = square feet per bigha

3. Match the result against the master table. It should land on one of the ten values, not between them.

4. If it lands between two values, something is wrong, either the area, the count, or the assumption about which bigha. Do not average them.

A Worked Check

A seller in Uttar Pradesh offers "20 bigha." The agreement states the area.

If the agreement says ÷ 20 = Which means Actual size
5,44,500 sq ft 27,225 Pucca bigha, 20 biswa 12.5 acres
1,81,500 sq ft 9,075 Kachha, 6⅔ biswa 4.17 acres
1,36,125 sq ft 6,806.25 Kachha, 5 biswa 3.125 acres

Same twenty bigha. Four times the land between the first and the last. No amount of care about decimal places substitutes for this one division.

The Better Check: Use the Sub-Unit

In Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan there is a shortcut that removes the ambiguity entirely.

Ask for the area in biswa, not bigha. The biswa is constant at 1,361.25 sq ft throughout the pucca-rod tradition, so a biswa figure means the same thing in Ghaziabad and in Ghazipur. A bigha figure does not.

240 biswa = 3,26,700 sq ft = 7.5 acres, and that is true whether the local trade calls it 12 bigha, 36 bigha or 48 bigha.

The same logic applies elsewhere: in Bihar ask for katha, in West Bengal ask for katha or chatak, in Punjab and Haryana ask for kanal and marla. In every case the sub-unit is more stable than the bigha above it.

Read the Record in Its Own Unit

Finally, and most importantly: whatever the negotiation is in, the record is in something else. Hectares in UP and Rajasthan, acres and decimals in Bihar and Bengal, kanal and marla in Punjab and Haryana, and bigha–katha–lessa only in Assam. Convert from the record, not from the conversation.

Converting Prices Quoted per Bigha

Land is quoted per bigha across most of north and east India, and because the bigha varies fourfold, the same rupee figure can mean four different prices.

The Inversion Rule

Price per unit moves inversely to the size of the unit. A per-bigha price on a small bigha buys less land, so it is a higher real price.

Price per sq ft = Price per bigha ÷ (regional bigha in sq ft)

Always reduce to rupees per square foot before comparing anything.

The Same Quote, Three Places

₹4,00,000 per bigha, in three parts of one state:

Region 1 bigha Per square foot Per acre
Eastern UP (pucca, 20 biswa) 27,225 sq ft ₹14.69 ₹6,40,000
Western UP (kachha, 6⅔ biswa) 9,075 sq ft ₹44.08 ₹19,20,000
Western UP (kachha, 5 biswa) 6,806.25 sq ft ₹58.77 ₹25,60,000

Four times the price per square foot, from an identical quoted figure, inside a single state. Nothing in "₹4,00,000 per bigha" tells you which.

The Question to Ask

"What is the total area in square feet, and what is the price per square foot?"

Both belong in the agreement anyway. A seller who will not give you the square-foot area is not withholding a detail. They are withholding the only figure that makes the price comparable.

Bigha vs Acre

Feature Bigha Acre
Type Traditional regional unit Standardised area unit
Defined by Nothing; no Indian statute defines it numerically The 1959 international yard agreement
Size 632 m² to 6,070 m² depending on where you stand 4,046.8564224 m², identical everywhere
Varies by state? Yes, and by district, and by pucca/kachha No
Origin Ain-i-Akbari, 60 gaz square A furlong by a chain
In land records Assam only, among the states we verified Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh
Conversion Needs a location before any number is valid Exact

The honest comparison: these are not two units of different sizes. They are a defined unit and an undefined one. The acre's figure means the same thing to every party in a transaction; the bigha's means whatever the local rod meant when the settlement officer wrote it down.

Where the bigha is still the better unit to speak in: nowhere in a document, and everywhere in a conversation. It is the language of the market across the Hindi belt and Bengal, and refusing to use it makes you harder to deal with. Use it to talk. Convert to square feet to agree.

Bigha vs Biswa

For anyone transacting in Uttar Pradesh or Rajasthan, this is the comparison that matters more than Bigha vs Acre, because one of these two units is reliable and the other is not.

Feature Bigha Biswa
Position in the chain The top unit 1/20 of a pucca bigha
Size 6,806.25 – 27,225 sq ft, by region 1,361.25 sq ft, wherever the 99-inch gatha applies
Varies within Uttar Pradesh? Yes, three values No
Varies between rod traditions? Yes Yes, 871.2 sq ft in Marwar, 435.6 in Himachal, 453.75 in the Punjab kachha system
What actually changes east to west in UP The bigha Nothing; only how many biswa the trade calls a "bigha"
Per acre 1.6 to 6.4 32, exactly, in the pucca tradition

The Point

In Uttar Pradesh the biswa is constant and the bigha is not. Eastern UP calls 20 biswa a bigha; parts of western UP call 6⅔ biswa a bigha; other parts call 5 biswa a bigha. The biswa itself never moves.

That produces a simple and unusually valuable rule:

In UP and Rajasthan's pucca belt, agree the area in biswa. A biswa figure means the same thing in Ghaziabad and Ghazipur. A bigha figure does not.

240 biswa = 3,26,700 sq ft = 7.5 acres

and that holds whether the local trade calls it 12 bigha (east), 36 bigha (6⅔-biswa districts) or 48 bigha (5-biswa districts). Three different bigha counts, one unambiguous area.

The Condition

The biswa is constant within a rod tradition, not universally. Where a genuinely different rod was used the biswa moves with it:

Region 1 biswa Biswa per acre
UP · Rajasthan pucca 1,361.25 sq ft 32
Rajasthan kachha (Marwar) 871.2 sq ft 50
Punjab / Haryana old records 453.75 sq ft 96
Himachal Pradesh 435.6 sq ft 100 (= 1 cent exactly)

So the rule is not "the biswa is fixed everywhere." It is "the biswa is fixed where the bigha varies", which is precisely the situation in Uttar Pradesh, and precisely why the advice works there.

Which Unit Should You Transact In?

Where Ask for the area in
Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan (pucca belt) Biswa, or square feet
Bihar, Jharkhand Katha, and the district
West Bengal Katha or chatak
Assam Katha and lessa; and note Assam's 5-katha bigha
Punjab, Haryana Kanal and marla; the record is kept in these
Uttarakhand hills Nali; stable where the hill bigha is not
Gujarat Vasa or guntha, both chains close cleanly
Anywhere, for a document Square feet or square metres

Never agree a price against a bigha figure alone. It is the one unit in the chain that carries no fixed meaning.

Bigha Conversion Accuracy and Rounding

Where the Error Actually Comes From

Almost nowhere on this page is rounding the problem.

Source of error Typical size Fix
Using the wrong regional bigha Up to 300% The master table
Using 27,000 sq ft for a UP pucca bigha 0.83% Use 27,225
Confusing pucca and kachha within one state 200–300% Ask how many biswa
Treating the MP or Bundelkhand figure as settled Unknown Verify locally
Rounding 2,529.2853 m² to 2,529.29 0.00002% More decimals

The first and third rows are three orders of magnitude larger than the last. Precision in the decimals is worth nothing if the region is wrong.

What Is Exact

Because every regional bigha is defined in whole or half square feet, conversions to square feet, square yards and square metres are exact for every region. Most conversions to acre-derived units are also exact, because most bighas are clean fractions of an acre. The exceptions are Delhi (1,008 sq yd) and Haryana's Ambala belt (900 sq yd), both round-number trade figures.

Display Rules

  1. Name the region beside every figure. A bigha number without a region is not a result.
  2. Compute from square feet, round only at the end.
  3. Do not use 27,000. It is a rounding of 27,225 that has acquired a life of its own.
  4. Mark the unverified values as unverified, MP and Bundelkhand, every time.
  5. Never imply legal precision. No Indian statute defines this unit. A conversion is arithmetic on a market convention.

Reverse Bigha Conversions

To convert into bigha, go through square feet:

Bigha = (area in square feet) ÷ (regional bigha in square feet)

From To square feet Then
Square yards / gaj × 9 ÷ regional bigha
Square metres × 10.763910417 ÷ regional bigha
Acres × 43,560 ÷ regional bigha
Hectares × 107,639.104167 ÷ regional bigha
Ares × 1,076.391042 ÷ regional bigha
Cent / decimal / dismil × 435.6 ÷ regional bigha
Guntha × 1,089 ÷ regional bigha
Kanal × 5,445 ÷ regional bigha
Marla / perch × 272.25 ÷ regional bigha
Biswa (UP pucca) × 1,361.25 ÷ regional bigha
Katha (WB) × 720 ÷ regional bigha
Katha (Assam) × 2,880 ÷ regional bigha
Katha (Bihar Patna) × 1,361.25 ÷ regional bigha
Dhur (Bihar) × 68.0625 ÷ regional bigha
Chatak × 45 ÷ regional bigha
Lessa × 144 ÷ regional bigha
Ground × 2,400 ÷ regional bigha
Nali × 2,160 ÷ regional bigha

Acres to Bigha, by Region

Acres UP pucca Punjab Raj kachha / Gujarat WB / Assam UP kachha 6⅔ Himachal UP kachha 5
1 1.6 2 2.5 3.025 4.8 5 6.4
2 3.2 4 5 6.05 9.6 10 12.8
5 8 10 12.5 15.125 24 25 32
10 16 20 25 30.25 48 50 64
20 32 40 50 60.5 96 100 128
50 80 100 125 151.25 240 250 320
100 160 200 250 302.5 480 500 640

Practical Bigha Conversion Examples

Example 1: 5 Bigha in Eastern UP

5 × 27,225 = 1,36,125 sq ft = 3.125 acres = 1.2646 hectares = 100 biswa

Example 2: 5 Bigha in Western UP (6⅔ biswa)

5 × 9,075 = 45,375 sq ft = 1.0417 acres = 0.4215 hectares = 33.33 biswa

Same five bigha, one state, three times the land in the first case.

Example 3: 10 Bigha in West Bengal

10 × 14,400 = 1,44,000 sq ft = 3.3058 acres = 1.3378 hectares = 200 katha = 3,200 chatak

Example 4: Square Feet to Bigha

You have 50,000 sq ft. How many bigha?

Region Bigha
UP pucca 1.8365
Punjab 2.2957
Rajasthan kachha / Gujarat 2.8696
West Bengal / Assam 3.4722
Himachal Pradesh 5.7392
UP kachha (5 biswa) 7.3462

Example 5: A Rajasthan Purchase

A seller in Jodhpur offers "8 bigha." Jodhpur is Marwar, so the kachha bigha of 17,424 sq ft applies:

8 × 17,424 = 1,39,392 sq ft = 3.2 acres = 1.2950 hectares

Had the buyer assumed the Jaipur pucca bigha, they would have expected 8 × 27,225 = 2,17,800 sq ft = 5 acres. 56% more land than exists. The two bighas are 200 km apart within one state, and Rajasthan's own rules acknowledge the difference.

Example 6: Crossing the Nepal Border

A holding described as "3 bigha" in a Nepal Terai district:

3 × 72,900 = 2,18,700 sq ft = 5.0207 acres = 2.0318 hectares

The same three bigha in Bihar would be 3 × 27,225 = 81,675 sq ft = 1.875 acres. The Nepali bigha is 2.68 times the Indian pucca bigha, a difference that matters constantly in the border districts of Bihar and UP.

Important Things to Check Before Converting Bigha

  1. Identify the state. Nothing else on this page works without it. There is no national bigha.
  2. Within UP, Bihar and Rajasthan, identify the district or belt. UP has three bighas; Bihar has at least four; Rajasthan has two plus an unpublished schedule of more.
  3. Ask how many biswa make the local bigha. Twenty, six-and-two-thirds, or five. This single question resolves the entire UP ambiguity.
  4. In Haryana, establish which tradition applies, the kanal system (21,780 sq ft) or the biswa system (8,100 or 8,712).
  5. Get the area in square feet or square metres in writing, then divide by the bigha count and check the result lands on a value in the master table.
  6. Prefer the sub-unit. Biswa in UP and Rajasthan, katha in Bihar and Bengal, kanal and marla in Punjab and Haryana. The sub-unit is stable where the bigha is not.
  7. Read the record in its own unit. Hectares in UP and Rajasthan, acres and decimals in Bihar and Bengal, kanal-marla in Punjab and Haryana, bigha-katha-lessa only in Assam.
  8. Do not use 27,000. Use 27,225.
  9. Treat MP's 12,000 sq ft and any Bundelkhand figure as unverified until you have checked them against a local record.
  10. Convert the price, not just the area. Reduce every offer to rupees per square foot before comparing.
  11. Confirm the area that will be mutated. Mutation transfers the area the record holds, not the area the agreement recites.
  12. Treat online conversions as informational. No Indian statute defines the bigha; for the transaction, use the record of rights, the registered documents and, where the value justifies it, a licensed survey.

Frequently Asked Questions About Bigha Conversion

How many square feet is 1 bigha?

There is no single answer. It depends on your state. The range is 6,806.25 to 27,225 square feet among the common bighas, with one Bihar district at 65,340.

Region 1 bigha
Eastern UP, Bihar (Patna), eastern Rajasthan 27,225 sq ft
Punjab 21,780 sq ft
Rajasthan (Marwar), Gujarat 17,424 sq ft
West Bengal, Assam, Jharkhand 14,400 sq ft
Madhya Pradesh (unverified) 12,000 sq ft
Delhi NCR 9,072 sq ft
Western UP (6⅔ biswa) 9,075 sq ft
Himachal Pradesh, Haryana (Rohtak) 8,712 sq ft
Haryana (Ambala belt) 8,100 sq ft
Western UP (5 biswa), Uttarakhand hills 6,806.25 sq ft

Why does 1 bigha mean different things in different places?

Because the Ain-i-Akbari defines a bigha as 60 gaz square, and the gaz was never fixed. When British surveyors measured the Ilahi gaz in 1824–5 they found it ranged from about 29 to 35 inches across the country; the 33-inch value that produces 27,225 sq ft was chosen administratively in 1825–6.

On top of that, the measuring rope itself varied. Ā'īn IX records that it "became shorter or longer according to the dryness or moisture of the atmosphere," which is why Akbar replaced it with bamboo joined by iron rings. That fixed the instrument, not the length.

What is the difference between pucca and kachha bigha?

Pucca is the full-rod bigha; kachha is made with a shorter rod. The sub-unit chain stays the same (20 biswa, 20 biswansi), and only the rod changes. Because area scales as the square of length, a modest rod change produces a large area change.

The Punjab Land Records Manual records the two rods: a 99-inch gatha giving the 27,225 sq ft bigha, and a 57.157-inch karam giving 9,075. And 99 ÷ √3 = 57.158, so the kachha bigha is exactly one-third of the pucca because the kachha rod is the pucca rod divided by √3.

A quarter-ratio also exists (6,806.25 sq ft), and Rajasthan's Marwar bigha breaks the pattern entirely: it is a 132-foot square against the pucca 165, a 5:4 linear ratio giving 0.64 of the pucca area, not ⅓ or ¼.

How many bigha in 1 acre?

Between 1.6 and 6.4, depending on the state, and most are exact fractions:

UP pucca 1.6 · Punjab 2 · Rajasthan kachha & Gujarat 2.5 · WB & Assam 3.025 · UP kachha 6⅔ 4.8 · Himachal 5 · UP kachha 5 & Uttarakhand hills 6.4

How many bigha in 1 hectare?

Multiply the bigha-per-acre figure by 2.4710538. So 3.954 in eastern UP, 4.942 in Punjab, 6.178 in Marwar and Gujarat, 7.475 in West Bengal, 12.355 in Himachal, 15.815 in the western UP 5-biswa districts.

How many biswa in 1 bigha?

Twenty, in the pucca tradition, and that is the chain, not the variable. What changes in western UP is that the local trade calls 6⅔ biswa or 5 biswa a "bigha." The biswa itself stays at 1,361.25 sq ft.

How many katha in 1 bigha?

Twenty in West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand. Five in Assam. That structural difference is why the Assam katha is 2,880 sq ft and the Bengal katha is 720, in states that share an identical 14,400 sq ft bigha.

Is the bigha an official unit?

Not in any statute we could find. We examined the UP Revenue Code 2006 (which uses hectares exclusively and never mentions bigha, biswa or biswansi), the Rajasthan Land Records Rules 1957, the Rajasthan Survey and Settlement Rules 1957, the Legal Metrology Act 2009 and its National Standards Rules 2011, and the CAG's Rajasthan land-revenue audit manual. None gives the bigha a numeric definition.

Rajasthan's Rule 70 comes closest: it records area "in standard bighas or acres as prevalent in the integrating unit," referring to an Appendix I of per-state values, which does not appear to be publicly available online.

Which state land records still use bigha?

Assam, clearly: Dharitree carries bigha, katha and lessa alongside hectare and acre. Elsewhere: UP uses hectares, Rajasthan largely hectares, Bihar and West Bengal acres and decimals, Punjab and Haryana kanal and marla. Himachal's jamabandi reportedly still carries bigha-biswa, but we could not confirm that from an official source.

Did any state abolish the bigha?

Punjab and Haryana, effectively: both moved to acre-kanal-marla from 1957, with metrification completed by 1977. Uttar Pradesh did too, without saying so, by writing the entire Revenue Code 2006 in hectares.

Is 1 bigha the same in Nepal?

No: the Nepali bigha is far larger. It is a 270 × 270 ft square: 72,900 sq ft = 6,772.63 m² = 1.6736 acres, which is 2.68 times the Indian pucca bigha. The chain in customary use is 1 bigha = 20 katha (3,645 sq ft) = 400 dhur (182.25 sq ft). This matters constantly in the border districts of Bihar and eastern UP.

A caveat added after later research into the katha: that chain is customary, not statutory. Nepal's Land (Survey and Measurement) Act, section 4, requires area to be determined in hectares and square metres and requires records held in bigha or ropani to be converted into metric. No Nepali instrument we could reach defines the bigha or states the twenty-katha ratio.

Is bigha used in Maharashtra, Odisha or Tripura?

No, in all three. Maharashtra uses guntha, acre and hectare, with the 7/12 in hectare–are–square metre. Odisha uses guntha, decimal and acre. Tripura publishes its own official unit list (kani (17,280 sq ft), gonda, kara, kranti and dhur), and bigha is not on it. The "Tripura bigha = 14,400 sq ft" in circulation appears to be Bengal's figure pasted across.

Is 1 bigha = 27,000 square feet?

No: 27,225. The 27,000 figure is a rounding that has acquired a life of its own; no source defines it independently. You will also meet 27,220 and 27,211, which are corruptions of the same number. Over ten bigha, using 27,000 understates by 2,250 sq ft.

What is the bigha in Madhya Pradesh?

12,000 sq ft is what everyone publishes, and we cannot verify it. It has no sub-unit chain, no statutory basis and no derivation, and unlike almost every other bigha it is not a clean fraction of an acre. Treat it as indicative and check against a local record.

How do I check a bigha figure someone gave me?

Get the area in square feet in writing, divide by the bigha count, and see whether the result lands on a value in the master table. If it lands between two values, something is wrong. Better still, ask for the area in biswa (UP, Rajasthan), katha (Bihar, Bengal) or kanal and marla (Punjab, Haryana). The sub-units are stable where the bigha is not.

What is a vigha?

The Gujarati form of the same word. 1 vigha = 17,424 sq ft = exactly 0.4 acre, and it closes through two independent chains: 20 vasa of 871.2 sq ft, or 16 guntha of 1,089 sq ft. Gujarat is the tidiest bigha in India.

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

  1. Did it ask which state you are in? If not, it guessed.
  2. Does the chain close? A pucca bigha must be 20 × 1,361.25 = 27,225. A Punjab bigha must be 4 × 5,445 = 21,780. If the sub-units do not multiply up, the source has an error.
  3. Is the bigha a clean fraction of an acre? Most genuine bighas are: ⅕, ⅖, ½, ⅝. A figure that is not (and is not a round yard number like 900 or 1,008) deserves scrutiny.
  4. Is a kachha value smaller than the pucca one? If a source makes it larger, it has inverted the meaning.

Specific claims to reject: "1 bigha = 27,000 sq ft" (27,225) · "Jharkhand bigha = 27,211" (14,400) · "Tripura bigha = 14,400" (Tripura has no bigha) · any single national bigha figure.

The sub-units: usually more reliable than the bigha itself: Biswa · Katha · Dhur · Chatak · Lessa · Biswansi

Standard units to convert into: Square Feet · Square Yard · Square Metre · Acre · Hectare · Ares · Cent · Decimal · Guntha

Regional neighbours: Kanal · Marla · Killa · Murabba · Nali · Ground · Ankanam · Gajam · Perch · Pura · Square Karam

Background reference: Indian Land Units by State · The Four-Check Method

Sources and Method

How the numbers were produced. Every figure was computed in exact fraction arithmetic from the verified square-foot size of each regional bigha, against 1 acre = 43,560 sq ft exactly, and machine-checked so that every table row closes against its regional value. Nothing was copied from another converter.

Primary historical - Abu'l Fazl, Ain-i-Akbari (1595): Ā'īn VIII (the Ilahi gaz of 41 digits), Ā'īn IX (the jarib, the hemp rope and the bamboo-and-iron-ring replacement in the nineteenth year), Ā'īn X (the bigha as 60 gaz square, 20 biswah, 20 biswānsah) - C. A. H. Townsend, settlement report, 1912: the kachcha bigha at "0.208 of an acre" - Punjab Land Records Manual: the 99-inch gatha and 57.157-inch karam, with their full sub-unit chains

Statutory and official - Uttar Pradesh Revenue Code, 2006: examined; uses hectares exclusively, no traditional unit appears - Rajasthan Land Revenue (Land Records) Rules, 1957: Rule 70 and its reference to Appendix I - Rajasthan Land Revenue (Survey, Record and Settlement) (Government) Rules, 1957: Rule 5, the 40-metre standard chain - Legal Metrology Act, 2009 and Legal Metrology (National Standards) Rules, 2011 - Comptroller and Auditor General, Revenue Audit Manual (Land Revenue), Rajasthan - Government of Tripura, official unit-of-land-measurement list - Bihar revenue glossary (Government of Bihar) on the katha's intra-state variation

Reference - Sizes.com: settlement-era district values, the Punjab and Haryana land-area charts, the pucca/kachha ⅓ and ¼ statement, and the "forty different bighas" quotation - Starting points, not authorities. Wikipedia's articles on Bigha, Katha, Measurement of land in Punjab, Dahsala system and Guz were used to find leads and to cross-check names. No figure on this page rests on them. Every value is computed from the acre or carried by a named source above, and the unsourced ones are labelled as such.

What is original to this page. The identification of 99 ÷ √3 = 57.158 as the mechanism producing the exact ⅓ kachha ratio. The kachha bigha is made by dividing the rod by the square root of three, not by counting fewer biswa · the demonstration that 27,225 sq ft is the Akbari bigha computed exactly (60 gaz × 33 in = 165 ft, squared) · the observation that the 33-inch Ilahi gaz was a British administrative choice of 1825–6 from a measured range of 29–35 inches, not a Mughal measurement · the finding that Marwar's bigha is a 5:4 linear ratio (0.64 of pucca) and breaks the "fraction of pucca" rule that every other source applies · the correction that Haryana has two live traditions rather than irreconcilable sources · the confirmation that Punjab's bigha is exactly half an acre (4 kanal) · the verified absence of the bigha from the UP Revenue Code 2006 · the observation that most Indian bighas are exact fractions of an acre, which suggests the local rods were laid against the acre survey rather than independently · the identification of Bihar's dhur and UP's biswansi as the same 68.0625 sq ft under two names · and the checking procedure built on the sub-unit rather than the bigha.

What we could not verify, and are not going to invent. Rajasthan's Appendix I (the schedule of per-princely-state bigha values that Rule 70 points to; every digitised copy of the 1957 Rules truncates before the appendices · the original source of the "forty different bighas… ropes varying from 100 feet to 185 feet" quotation, which we quote with its attribution problem stated · the texts of the Assam Land and Revenue Regulation 1886 and the West Bengal Land Reforms Act 1955, both of which were unreachable · Madhya Pradesh's 12,000 sq ft, which has no chain, no authority and no clean acre fraction · Bundelkhand, where two sources give 20,000 and 3,500 sq ft for the same districts · whether Himachal's HimBhoomi jamabandi currently records in bigha-biswa · and any court judgment turning on bigha ambiguity) we found news reports that use the unit but none that turn on which bigha was meant.

Disclaimer

This page is an informational reference for land-area conversion. It is not legal, valuation or survey advice.

The bigha has no statutory definition anywhere in India. The values here reflect documented regional conventions that may not match the convention applied in your district, in a particular land record, or by a particular authority, and two of them are explicitly marked unverified.

For any purchase, sale, mutation, partition, litigation or other transaction, rely on the applicable record of rights, the registered documents 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.

Bigha Conversion Quick Reference

Conversion 1 Bigha Note
Acre 0.625 Exact; Exact by definition: 43,560 sq ft = 4,840 sq yd
Ankanam 378.125 (Standard) Region-specific; also 756.25 (Tirupati)
Ares 25.29285264 Exact; 100 m², the metric are
Biswa 20 (UP / Rajasthan pucca) Region-specific; also 31.25 (Rajasthan kachha) · 60 (Punjab / Haryana old records) · 62.5 (Himachal Pradesh)
Biswa Kacha 31.25 (Rajasthan kachha reading) Region-specific; also 60 (Punjab / Haryana revenue definition)
Cent 62.5 Exact; One hundredth of an acre, exactly
Chatak 605 Exact; 5 sq yd exactly; 16 to the cottah, 968 to the acre. Reported, not stated by any instrument located
Decimal 62.5 Exact; One hundredth of an acre, exactly
Dhur 400 (Bihar / Jharkhand (Patna chain)) Region-specific; also 7,562.5 (Tripura)
Dismil 62.5 Exact; The decimal under another name
Gaj 3,025 Exact; The square yard, 9 sq ft
Gajam 3,025 Exact; The square yard in Telugu, 9 sq ft
Ground 11.34375 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 25 Exact; 121 sq yd; 40 guntha = 1 acre exactly
Hectare 0.2529285264 Exact; 10,000 m² exactly
Kanal 5 (Standard (66-inch karam)) Region-specific; also 6.05 (Majha belt (60-inch karam)) · 6.587524 (Doaba belt (57.5-inch karam)) · 7.469136 (Kapurthala belt (54-inch karam))
Katha 20 (Bihar state standard) Region-specific; also 37.8125 (West Bengal / Jharkhand) · 9.453125 (Assam) · 15.625 (Bihar (Chhapra))
Killa 0.625 Exact; The acre under its Punjabi name
Lessa 189.0625 Exact; The 12-foot mauzadari jar squared (Assam Land Records Manual r.117); 20 to a katha, 100 to a bigha
Marla 100 (Standard (66-inch karam)) Region-specific; also 121 (Majha belt (60-inch karam)) · 131.750473 (Doaba belt (57.5-inch karam)) · 149.382716 (Kapurthala belt (54-inch karam))
Murabba 0.025 (Punjab canal colony) Region-specific; also 0.04 (Rajasthan (Indira Gandhi Canal))
Nali 12.604167 Recurring; 240 sq yd; 16 mutthi of 135 sq ft. No instrument located states the figure
Perch 100 Exact; 30.25 sq yd; 160 perches = 1 acre
Pura 0.47265625 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 25,292,852.64 Exact; One ten-thousandth of a square metre
Square Feet 27,225 Exact; The base of this series
Square Inch 3,920,400 Exact; One 144th of a square foot
Square Karam 900 (Standard (66-inch karam)) Region-specific; also 1,089 (Majha belt (60-inch karam)) · 1,185.754253 (Doaba belt (57.5-inch karam)) · 1,344.444444 (Kapurthala belt (54-inch karam))
Square Kilometer 0.002529285264 Exact; 1,000,000 m²
Square Meter 2,529.285264 Exact; The SI unit of area
Square Mile 0.0009765625 Exact; 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 3,025 Exact; 9 sq ft exactly

Bigha 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.

Bigha to Decimal

1 bigha = 62.5 decimal. A decimal and a cent are the same area, 435.6 square feet, so any Bigha figure converts to the same number of either. Decimal = Bigha × 62.5 · reverse Bigha = Decimal × 0.016

Bigha to Dismil

1 bigha = 62.5 dismil. A dismil and a cent are the same area, 435.6 square feet, so any Bigha figure converts to the same number of either. Dismil = Bigha × 62.5 · reverse Bigha = Dismil × 0.016

Bigha to Gajam

1 bigha = 3,025 gajam. A gajam and a gaj are the same area, 9 square feet, so any Bigha figure converts to the same number of either. Gajam = Bigha × 3,025 · reverse Bigha = Gajam ÷ 3,025

Bigha to Killa

1 bigha = 0.625 killa. A killa and an acre are the same area, 43,560 square feet, so any Bigha figure converts to the same number of either. Killa = Bigha × 0.625 · reverse Bigha = Killa × 1.6

Bigha to Perch

1 bigha = 100 perches. A perch and a marla are the same area, 272.25 square feet, so any Bigha figure converts to the same number of either. Perch = Bigha × 100 · reverse Bigha = Perch × 0.01

Bigha to Square Yard

1 bigha = 3,025 square yards. A square yard and a gaj are the same area, 9 square feet, so any Bigha figure converts to the same number of either. Square Yard = Bigha × 3,025 · reverse Bigha = Square Yard ÷ 3,025

The tables above are arithmetic, and for a bigha the arithmetic is the easy half. What decides whether the figure you started with is the right one to convert at all is There Is No Such Thing as "One Bigha".

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