Nalva (from

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

) is a measure of distance equal to 400 Hastas (

Cubit The cubit is an ancient unit of length based on the distance from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger. It was primarily associated with the Sumerians, Egyptians, and Israelites. The term ''cubit'' is found in the Bible regarding No ...

s).According to

Nīlakaṇṭha Caturdhara Neelakantha Chaturdhara ( sa, नीलकण्ठ चतुर्धर, IAST: ''Nīlakaṇṭha Caturdhara'') (also referred as Neelakantha Chaturdhar) was a scholar who lived in Varanasi in the later half of the 17th century, famous for his ...

, nalvo - hasta-catuḥ-śataṃ That is equal to 9600

Aṅgula Aṅgula (from sa, अङ्गुल - 'a finger; the thumb; a finger's breadth') is a measure of length. Twelve ''aṅgulas'' make a Vitasti or span, and twenty-four a Hasta or Cubit The cubit is an ancient unit of length based on th ...

, which is believed to be equal to approximately 180 metres. Used in

Mahābhārata The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the ''Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the Kuruk ...

Notes

Units of length Obsolete units of measurement History of science and technology in India Mahabharata {{standard-stub