Issues in Indian metrology, from Harappa to Bhāskarācārya (Q2818660)

From various literary sources from 1500 BCE to 1200 CE definitions of units of measure are compiled. The variety of ways in which the same unit is described, as well as the vagueness (for example, ``the distance that the lowing of a cow can be heard''), present an interesting historical challenge to try to arrive at the modern centimeter-gram-second equivalent. Focusing on two units of length here, the author provides the latest researches into arriving at such an equivalent. The keys to this are not the historically presented definitions so much as the way in which the units are used to describe physical objects such as the circumference of the Earth, or as they are presumed to have been used in proportioning various archaeological artifacts, such as a bust, or the dimensions of a cave. A useful summary is given of previous research on this topic.