Candy (unit)

is shown in pink on this 1837 map. The Madras Presidency is in the southeast, the Bombay Presidency is in the west and the Bengal Presidency is in the northeast. The candy or candee (Marathi: खंडी, khaṇḍī; Tamil: கண்டி, kaṇṭi; Malayalam: കണ്ഡി, kaṇḍi, കണ്ടി, kaṇṭi ), also known as the maunee, was a traditional South Asian unit of mass, equal to 20 maunds and roughly equivalent to 500 pounds avoirdupois (227 kilograms). 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 (25 hectares, very approximately), and it is also recorded as a unit of dry volume. The candy was generally one of the largest (if not the largest) unit in a given system of measurement. The name is thought to be derived from the Sanskrit खण्डन (root खुड्) khaṇḍ, "to divide, break into pieces", which has also been suggested as the root of the term (sugar-)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.

is shown in pink on this 1837 map. The Madras Presidency is in the southeast, the Bombay Presidency is in the west and the Bengal Presidency is in the northeast.]] The candy or candee (Marathi: खंडी, khaṇḍī; Tamil: கண்டி, kaṇṭi; Malayalam: കണ്ഡി, kaṇḍi, കണ്ടി, kaṇṭi ), also known as the maunee, was a traditional South Asian unit of mass, equal to 20 maunds and roughly equivalent to 500 pounds avoirdupois (227 kilograms). 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 (25 hectares, very approximately), and it is also recorded as a unit of dry volume. The candy was generally one of the largest (if not the largest) unit in a given system of measurement. The name is thought to be derived from the Sanskrit खण्डन (root खुड्) khaṇḍ, "to divide, break into pieces", which has also been suggested as the root of the term (sugar-)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. File:Pope1880MadrasPres2.jpg|Madras Presidency shown in an 1880 map. File:Pope1880BombayPres2.jpg|Bombay Presidency in an 1880 map. File:Pope1880BengalPres2.jpg|Bengal Presidency in 1880. 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 (modern-day Vadodara) – 892 lbs. 1 oz. 4 dr. (404.640 kg) – can be explained by this higher value of the Mughal maund. The candy in Surat, the main port of Gujarat, is also consistently quoted as being much larger than the same unit further south.

Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1368887655 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.