Tola (unit)

The tola (Hindi: तोला; Urdu: تولا‎; Bengali: তোলা; tolā. from Sanskrit: तोलकः; tolaka) Punjabi ਤੋਲਾ , also transliterated as tolah or tole, is a traditional Ancient Indian and South Asian unit of mass, now standardised as 180 troy grains (11.663 8038 grams) or exactly 3/8 troy ounce. Tola is also used interchangeably as "BHAR" in some parts of North India. It was the base unit of mass in the British Indian system of weights and measures introduced in 1833, although it had been in use for much longer. It was also used in Aden and Zanzibar: in the latter, one tola was equivalent to 175.90 troy grains (0.97722222 British tolas, or 11.33980925 grams).

The tola is a Vedic measure, with the name derived from the Sanskrit tol (तोलः root तुल्) meaning "weighing" or "weight". One tola was traditionally the weight of 100 ratti (ruttee) seeds, and its exact weight varied according to locality. However, it is also a convenient mass for a coin: several pre-colonial coins, including the currency of Akbar the Great (1556–1605), had a mass of "one tola" within slight variation. The very first rupee (Urdu: رپيا‎; rupayā), minted by Sher Shah Suri (1540–45), had a mass of 178 troy grains, or about 1% less than the British tola. The British East India Company issued a silver rupee coin of 180 troy grains, and this became the practical standard mass for the tola well into the 20th century.

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