A vitasti ( sa, वितस्ति, ') is an ancient

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

unit of length approximating to 21

centimeter 330px, Different lengths as in respect to the Electromagnetic spectrum, measured by the Metre and its deriveds scales. The Microwave are in-between 1 meter to 1 millimeter. A centimetre (international spelling) or centimeter (American spellin ...

Etymology

The

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 ...

word ''vitasti'', meaning "span", is an ancient Indo-Iranian term. It is derived from the

Proto-Indo-Iranian Proto-Indo-Iranian, also Proto-Indo-Iranic is the reconstructed proto-language of the Indo-Iranian/Indo-Iranic branch of Indo-European. Its speakers, the hypothetical Proto-Indo-Iranians, are assumed to have lived in the late 3rd millennium B ...

term ''*witasti-'' and is related to

Avestan Avestan (), or historically Zend, is an umbrella term for two Old Iranian languages: Old Avestan (spoken in the 2nd millennium BCE) and Younger Avestan (spoken in the 1st millennium BCE). They are known only from their conjoined use as the scrip ...

''vītasti'', Kurdish ''bist'' and

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

''bidast'', all meaning "span".

Measurement

According to the Vāstuśāstra, a vitasti is equal to 12 aṅgulas. It is defined as the long span between the extended thumb and the little finger or as the distance between the wrist and the fingertips.Sir Monier Monier Williams dictionary

Equivalence to other units of length

8 ''Paramāṇu'' = 1 ''Rathadhūli'' (chariot-dust)
8 ''Rathadhūli'' = 1 ''Vālāgra'' (hair-end)
8 ''Vālāgra'' = 1 ''Likṣā'' (nit)
8 ''Likṣā'' = 1 ''Yūkā'' (louse)
8 ''Yūkā'' = 1 ''Yava'' (barley)
8 ''Yava'' = 1 ''Aṅgula'' (finger)
12 ''Aṅgula'' = 1 ''Vitasti'' (span)
2 ''Vitasti'' = 1 ''Kiṣku'' (cubit)

References

{{reflist Units of measurement