Guntha: the unit that behaves itself
Guntha is what people reach for when a parcel is too small to call an acre. Forty gunthas make exactly one acre, and unlike bigha the value does not wander from district to district.
One guntha is 1,089 sq ft, or 121 sq. yd., which is a square of 33 feet by 33 feet. Because it is standardised, you can negotiate in guntha without the anxiety a bigha price brings. In Karnataka and the Telugu speaking districts the same unit is spoken as gunta and behaves identically.
You will hear guntha most in Maharashtra and Gujarat, usually where land is being split among family members or sold as a strip along road frontage. In Gujarat it sits comfortably next to vigha in the same sentence, which is a useful reminder that a standardised unit and a variable one often share a conversation.
A quick anchor worth memorising: a 1,500 sq. yd. farm land is a little under 12.5 guntha, and a 3,000 sq. yd. farm land is close to 25 guntha, or a bit over half an acre.
Typically used for: Small and mid size farm parcels, family partitions and roadside strips.
Where you'll hear it: Maharashtra, Gujarat, parts of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh
Also called: Gunta in Karnataka and the Telugu belt
Quick facts
- Exact value
- 1,089 sq ft
- In an acre
- 40 guntha
- In square yards
- 121 sq. yd.
- Sub unit
- 1 guntha = 121 sq. yd.
How guntha changes from place to place
The word stays the same, the ground does not. Here is what one guntha works out to in the regions where people use it, so you know exactly what you are being quoted.
| Region or usage | Local term | Square feet | Square yards | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maharashtra | Guntha | 1,089 sq ft | 121 sq. yd. | Standard across the state. Forty guntha to the acre, no local variation. |
| Gujarat | Guntha | 1,089 sq ft | 121 sq. yd. | Used beside vigha, and the safer of the two to quote a price in. |
| Karnataka | Gunta | 1,089 sq ft | 121 sq. yd. | Same size, different spelling. Often paired with the local ankanam for house sites. |
| Andhra Pradesh and Telangana | Gunta | 1,089 sq ft | 121 sq. yd. | Appears in revenue records next to cent and ankanam. |
If a seller quotes you in guntha, ask which version they mean before you talk price, then get the same area written in square yards and square feet. That is the figure the sale deed, the registry and any bank valuation will go by.
One Guntha in every other unit
Land unit converter
Convert between bigha, biswa, katha, guntha, kanal, marla, cent, acre, hectare, square yards (gaj) and square feet.
What locals would call this area
The same word can mean very different ground depending on where you are standing. Here is your 1,089 sq ft read back in the terms people actually use, state by state.
| Region | Local term | Your area |
|---|---|---|
| Haryana (Gurugram, Sohna, Naugaon) | Bigha | 0.04 bigha |
| Haryana and Punjab | Kanal | 0.2 kanal |
| Haryana and Punjab | Marla | 4 marla |
| Rajasthan (Alwar, Jaipur) | Pucca bigha | 0.04 pucca bigha |
| Rajasthan villages | Kachcha bigha | 0.12 kachcha bigha |
| Western Uttar Pradesh | Bigha | 0.0403 bigha |
| Uttar Pradesh and Haryana | Biswa | 0.8067 biswa |
| Gujarat | Vigha | 0.0625 vigha |
| Gujarat and Maharashtra | Guntha | 1 guntha |
| Madhya Pradesh | Bigha | 0.0908 bigha |
| Bihar and Jharkhand | Katha | 0.8001 katha |
| West Bengal | Cottah (katha) | 1.5125 cottah (katha) |
| Assam | Katha | 0.3781 katha |
| Uttarakhand hills | Bigha | 0.1601 bigha |
| Tamil Nadu and Kerala | Cent | 2.5 cent |
| Chennai | Ground | 0.4538 ground |
| Andhra Pradesh and Telangana | Ankanam | 15.13 ankanam |
| Delhi NCR | Gaj (square yard) | 121 gaj (square yard) |
Local values are the ones commonly used in each area. Districts and villages sometimes work with their own figures, so always ask the seller which version they mean and get the area written in square yards on paper.
PaperworkQuestions people ask
Why is one bigha not the same everywhere?+
Because bigha was never standardised. It grew out of local practice, so each region settled on its own size. A pucca bigha in Rajasthan is about 27,225 sq ft, a kachcha bigha in the same state is roughly 9,075 sq ft, Gujarat's vigha is 17,424 sq ft, Madhya Pradesh works with about 12,000 sq ft, and the hill districts of Uttarakhand use a bigha closer to 6,804 sq ft. Always ask which bigha is being quoted, then get the area restated in square yards.
What is the difference between a bigha, a biswa and a katha?+
They are the same idea in different languages. A bigha is the parent unit, and it gets divided into twenty parts. In Haryana and Uttar Pradesh those parts are called biswa, and in Bihar, Jharkhand and Bengal they are called katha. Since the parent bigha varies, so do biswa and katha, which is why a Bihar katha is about 1,361 sq ft while a Bengal cottah is only 720 sq ft.
Which local units are used around Sohna, Naugaon and Alwar?+
On the Haryana side you will hear bigha, biswa, kanal and marla, with kanal and marla appearing in the jamabandi. On the Alwar side of Rajasthan it is mostly pucca and kachcha bigha. Sale deeds through the whole belt are written in square yards, which is the unit we quote in.
How many guntha, kanal, marla or cent make an acre?+
Forty guntha, eight kanal, 160 marla or 100 cent. All four are standardised, so those numbers hold wherever you are. Bigha is the odd one out, and the answer there depends entirely on the state.
Why do land records use hectares when nobody speaks in hectares?+
Revenue departments moved to metric for record keeping, so jamabandi, khasra and khatian extracts carry hectares and ares. Everyday conversation stayed with the traditional units. You need both: hectares to read your papers and square yards to sign your deed.
What is the difference between vigha and bigha?+
The same unit with different spellings. Vigha is the Gujarati form, bigha the North Indian one. A Gujarat vigha is usually taken as 17,424 sq ft, which is not what a Haryana bigha means, so the spelling difference hides a real size difference.
Which unit should I use when comparing two pieces of land?+
Square feet, every time. Convert both offers to a price per square foot and the comparison becomes honest in seconds. Headline prices per bigha or per katha hide too much because the units themselves are not fixed.
How big is a 1,500 sq. yd. farm land in local terms?+
A 1,500 sq. yd. farm land is 13,500 sq ft. That is about 2.5 kanal or 50 marla in Haryana language, roughly 0.5 pucca bigha in Alwar, about 0.77 vigha in Gujarat terms, 12.4 guntha, just under 10 katha in Bihar, 31 cent in the south, or 0.31 acre.
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