Land UnitsThe bigha is the best known land unit of north and east India, and the most confusing one. It was never one fixed size. Each region measured it with its own rod or chain, so a bigha in one district can be four times a bigha in another.
That is why this site does not show "1 bigha = so many square feet" as a single line. It shows each official size we could read, with the place it belongs to. If your place is not here, ask the patwari or lekhpal what your local bigha is and use "My local unit" in the converter.
Why the sizes differ
A bigha is a square whose side is one local chain, called a jarib. Where the jarib is 165 feet long, the bigha is 165 × 165 = 27,225 square feet. Where the jarib is 132 feet, it is 17,424 square feet. In Uttarakhand the side is 82.5 feet, so the bigha is 6,806.25 square feet. The name is the same; the chain is not.
Biswa and biswansi
A bigha is divided into 20 biswa, and in most records a biswa into 20 biswansi. So a biswa is one twentieth of whichever bigha applies to you, and a biswansi is one four-hundredth of it. Areas are often written as bigha-biswa-biswansi, for example 3-12-5.
| Bigha | 1 biswa | 1 biswansi |
|---|---|---|
| Bigha (165 ft jarib) | 1,361.25 sq ft | 68.0625 sq ft |
| Bigha (132 ft jarib) | 871.2 sq ft | 43.56 sq ft |
| Bigha (Assam, Meghalaya) | 720 sq ft | 36 sq ft |
| Bigha (Haryana, before settlement) | 453.75 sq ft | 22.6875 sq ft |
| Bigha (Uttarakhand) | 340.3125 sq ft | 17.0156 sq ft |
The Haryana entry is worth a look: before settlement, one biswansi there was one karam by one karam, with a karam of 57.157 inches. Twenty of those made a biswa, twenty biswa a bigha, and 4 bigha 16 biswa made an acre.
What about Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Himachal?
Bigha is used in all of them, and its size changes from state to state and often from district to district. We did not find an official table for these states that we could open and read, so we have not printed a number for them. A number copied from an unofficial website could be wrong for your village by a wide margin, and land is too costly for that.
Bigha (165 ft jarib): ready table
| Bigha (165 ft jarib) | Square feet | Square yards | Acres |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 27,225 | 3,025 | 0.625 |
| 2 | 54,450 | 6,050 | 1.25 |
| 3 | 81,675 | 9,075 | 1.875 |
| 4 | 1,08,900 | 12,100 | 2.5 |
| 5 | 1,36,125 | 15,125 | 3.125 |
| 6 | 1,63,350 | 18,150 | 3.75 |
| 7 | 1,90,575 | 21,175 | 4.375 |
| 8 | 2,17,800 | 24,200 | 5 |
| 9 | 2,45,025 | 27,225 | 5.625 |
| 10 | 2,72,250 | 30,250 | 6.25 |
| 15 | 4,08,375 | 45,375 | 9.375 |
| 20 | 5,44,500 | 60,500 | 12.5 |
| 25 | 6,80,625 | 75,625 | 15.625 |
| 30 | 8,16,750 | 90,750 | 18.75 |
| 40 | 10,89,000 | 1,21,000 | 25 |
| 50 | 13,61,250 | 1,51,250 | 31.25 |
| 75 | 20,41,875 | 2,26,875 | 46.875 |
| 100 | 27,22,500 | 3,02,500 | 62.5 |
For a sale, a loan or a court paper, go by your own revenue record. Local units can differ between districts and between old and new records. The sizes here were read in the official documents named under Sources on 11 November 2026. This site is not a government site and gives no legal advice.
Questions people ask
How many square feet is 1 bigha (165 ft jarib)?
1 bigha (165 ft jarib) is 27,225 square feet, which is 3,025 square yards or 2,529.29 square metres. Source: the Government of India land records data standard.
How many square feet is 1 bigha (132 ft jarib)?
1 bigha (132 ft jarib) is 17,424 square feet, which is 1,936 square yards or 1,618.74 square metres. Source: the Government of India land records data standard.
How many square feet is 1 bigha (Assam, Meghalaya)?
1 bigha (Assam, Meghalaya) is 14,400 square feet, which is 1,600 square yards or 1,337.8 square metres. Source: the Statistical Handbook of Meghalaya 2023.
How many square feet is 1 bigha (Haryana, before settlement)?
1 bigha (Haryana, before settlement) is 9,075 square feet, which is 1,008.33 square yards or 843.1 square metres. Source: the Government of India land records data standard.
Sources
- Meta Data and Data Standards (MDDS), Annexure IV, code directory CD00.01 Measurement units, Table 1.3 Conversion Factors. Ministry of Electronics and IT, Government of India; the table credits the Department of Land Resources. Open the document
- Statistical Handbook of Meghalaya 2023, Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Government of Meghalaya, conversion table. Open the document
- Revenue Records and Arrangement of Holdings (training material), Uttarakhand Academy of Administration, Nainital, conversion page. Open the document