Candy (unit)


The candy or candee, also known as the maunee, was a traditional South Asian unit of mass, equal to 20 maunds and roughly equivalent to 500 pounds avoirdupois. It was most used in southern India, to the south of Akbar's empire, but has been recorded elsewhere in South Asia. In Marathi, the same word was also used for a unit of area of 120 bighas, and it is also recorded as a unit of dry volume.
The candy was generally one of the largest unit in a given system of measurement. The name is thought to be derived from the Sanskrit खण्डन khaṇḍ, "to divide, break into pieces", which has also been suggested as the root of the term candy. The word was adopted into several South Asian languages before the compilation of dictionaries, presumably through trade as several Dravidian languages have local synonyms: for example ఖండి kaṇḍi and పుట్టి puṭṭi in Telugu.

Unit of mass

The candy was equal to twenty maunds, but the value of the maund was not standardised across South Asia. There were at least three different approximate values for maund in early nineteenth century India, ranging from 11.34 kg to 37.32 kg, and values from outside India varied even wider. Much of our knowledge of the values of South Asian mass units comes from an 1821 study ordered by the British East India Company and subsequently published as Kelly's Oriental Metrology, although the approximate value of 500 pounds for the candy is attested as early as 1618. The earliest European reference to the candy puts its mass at 522 arráteis.
The three Presidencies of British India had already undertaken a fair degree of standardisation of weights and measures by the time of Kelly's study. In the Madras Presidency, the maund was fixed at 25 lbs. av., making the candy equal to 500 lbs. av.. In the Bombay Presidency, the maund was fixed at 28 lbs. av., making the candy exactly equal to 5 hundredweight. In Bombay itself, a separate value of the candy was recorded for "grain", equal to 8 parahs or 358 lbs. 6 oz. 4 dr.. In the Bengal Presidency, where the candy was not traditionally used, the maund was a much larger unit, 100 troy pounds.
The effects of this standardisation can also be seen in other territories under direct British control. In Ceylon, the candy was 500 lbs as on the Continent. Use of the candy is also recorded in British Burma, where it was the equivalent of 150 viss: its equivalent in Imperial units was measured as 500 lbs. in Pegu and 550 lbs. in Rangoon.
Perhaps the most striking example is from the princely state of Travancore in southwest India. At the British East India Company trading station of Anjengo, , the candy was equal to 35 telong and fixed at 560 lbs., as in Bombay. At Colachy however, less than 50 miles to the south, the candy was measured at only 376 lbs. 1 oz. 2 dr..


In the region of the Central Provinces, the maund was roughly 40 lbs., which is probably about the value it had under the Mughal Empire. The candy was not recorded as being in use as a unit of measurement in this region in 1821. Although not a part of the Central Provinces region, the unusually high value recorded for the candy in Baroda, Gujarat – 892 lbs. 1 oz. 4 dr. – can be explained by this higher value of the Mughal maund. The candy in Surat, the main port of Gujerat, is also consistently quoted as being much larger than the same unit further south.

Unit of area

The candy is also recorded as a unit of area in Marathi, equal to 120 bighas. It is impossible to accurately convert this to modern units given the huge variability in the different values of the bigha in different locations. In particular, Kelly's 1821 study of South Asian metrology is completely silent on land measures in the Bombay Presidency. Molesworth defines the Marathi bigha as equal to twenty pandas or to 400 square kathys, but also notes that it varies in different districts. The same author defines the kathy as "a land measure,—five cubits and five handbreadths also the measuring rod": other authors are silent on the unit. A cubit is roughly equal to five handbreadths, so the kathy can be taken to be roughly 25 square cubits: that is, 8100 square inches or 6.25 square yards. This would make the bigha roughly 2500 square yards, or half an acre, in agreement with measurements in other areas of India. The candy, therefore, can be taken to be approximately 60 acres or 25 hectares.
The celebrated Scottish orientalist Sir Henry Yule gives a slightly larger value for the candy as a unit of area, and describes it as the area of land which will produce one candy of grain. The Telegu unit of the putty is also used in the same way: one putty of land is that area which will produce one putty of rice.

Unit of dry volume

Several sources also describe the candy as a unit of dry measure. Again, it is difficult to give an accurate conversion to modern units, as most sources quote conversions to mass units for specific goods, and the few specific conversion factors that exist range from 8 to 25 bushels. More plausible is that one candy of dry measure was the volume that would have been occupied by one candy of water, that is about 254 litres in Bombay.
Not all grain measures in candies should be taken as dry measures. The United Nations Statistical Office reported that the candy was in use in the 20th century:
Both of these are obviously related to the candy as a unit of mass.