Physics is my favorite subject because Physics respects measurements and measures are associated with units. Some of the yesteryear units:
Jaan: Unit of length measured from tip of the thumb to the tip of the little finger
Mozham: If I remember right it is equal to two jaans. A direct definition is the length of the forearm starting with the tip of the middle finger. Strung flowers are measured in mozhams (even today. The word has an English equivalent - cubit.
Gundu: A unit of weight used to sell firewood
Badhdhai: A unit of selling ash gourd or yellow gourd (pooshanikkai / parangikkai. It denotes a three dimensional sectoroid scooped from the oblate spheroid shaped vegetable. The thickness of the sector will determine its price.Talking about vegetables, one can not forget to recall the 5 ft to 6 ft long snake gourd (unlike the present 2 ft long ones. We used to carry it without cutting it - much like Rama carrying the bow Kodhandam!
Mattai: A unit of volume for buying snuff (this habit of sniffing snuff has disappeared now. TAS Rathinam Pattanam Podi was the most popular brand, the logo depicting a man with mortar and pestle.
Piri: Unit of hay
Koopidu dhooram: Distance to which one's shout can travel. Similar to lightyear !
Muttai: Literally a spoon and hence used to specify amount of cooking oil in tablespoons
Ozhakku: Unit of volume roughly equivalent to 400 ml
Unit of Time has never changed - remains 60 secs to a minute, 60 minutes to an hour, 24 hours to a day and so on. Is that why we say Time is Etr
Re: time units:
ReplyDeleteWhat about nazhi / nazhigai? Whil nazhi is mentioned, I suppose it wasn't in popular use though. More of a Panchangam thing.
Nazhi is a measure of volume - like "one nazhi of milk" used mainly in Kerala. As you said Nazhigai is used in panchangam , 2.5 nazhigais to an hour or in other words one nazhigai = 24 minutes. An expression used by grandmas was "60 nazhigaiyum velayattu thana"? It was sometimes twisted as "60 naazhiyum ...". That's why probably you used nazhi and nazhigai in the same breath.
ReplyDeleteAnother reader has mentioned "verakkedai" to denote a small length. I feel it must be a mutated form of "veralukku idaiyil", meaning the space between the fingers or the space occupied by the width of the finger.
Kundhumani, the seed with red and black color was used to measure gold. I do not know how it was related to a soverign. "Aval veettil oru kundhumani thangam kooda kidayathu"
Venkatramani suggested Kavuli- a unit representing 100 numbers of betel leaves. Good one. There used to be "ravesu vettalai" meaning tender leaves and "Kumbakonam vettalai" standing for tough and more pungent leaves
ReplyDeletevery useful info!I'm sure kids of the next generation will not know any of these terms. Regarding Kundhumani, I think it is quite light weighted. May be it was used to stress the fact that even to possess gold equal to the weight of a Kundhumani was difficult in those days? I'm just guessing...
ReplyDeleteMythili.K
Lest we forget here are the units used in yesteryears:
ReplyDeleteWeight:
3 tola = 1 palam
8 palam = 1 seer
5 seer = 1 veesai
8 veesai = 1 manangu
20 manangu = 1 ton
Length:
12 angulam = 1 adi
3 adi = 1 gajam
220 gajam = 1 furlong
8 furlong = 1 mile
In betweeen 22 gajam was called a chain and so 10 chains make 1 furlong
Volume:
8 azhakku = 1 padi
8 padi = 1 marakkal
Fractions:
1/2 = arai
1/4 = kaal
1/8 = araikkaal
1/16 = veesam
1/32 = magani
Has this magani anything to do with the sarasparilla root pickle (magani kizhangu oorugai)?