undertook central agrarian reforms, under which statistical data was compiled by the local quanungo officials on instructions from then revenue minister Todar Mal. As a part of these reforms, Akbar the Great (1556–1605) enforced practical standardisation in the empire's weight and measure system. The Mughal measurement system measured land in terms of gaz and bigha. The measure of agricultural output was the man. Todar Mal's reforms were resisted by large land holders in India, following which the land of these zamindars was placed under the control of the Mughal treasury. Mughal surveying parties used standardised bamboo rods with iron joints to clearly record land according to the standard imperial land measures. These records were later used to collect land revenue corresponding to the land holdings. British units of measurement were adopted in India as first the East India Company and later colonial rule gained foothold. The Republic of India adopted the metric system on 1 October 1958. However, the traditional units still prevail in some areas. Chakrabarti (2007) holds that: 'Yet a few areas have still remained untouched by the metric system. In the land-measuring system in India, possibly one of the most complex and archaic systems, we follow different sets of measuring units and systems in different parts of the country. Different State governments have tried to standardise this by introducing a suitable metric system through which official transactions take place and official records are kept. But the land dealings are still done in a number of archaic units. It appears that people are satisfied and comfortable with them.' Indians in villages continue to use some of the ancient measuring techniques and standards such as palm length, arm length or the owner, tula for gold and mana for weight etc. See also Hindu units of measurement Indian weights and measures Citations Bibliography Allchin, F.R. (1995), "The Mauryan State and Empire", The Archaeology of Early Historic South Asia: The Emergence of Cities and States, Cambridge University Press, . Baber, Zaheer (1996), The Science of Empire: Scientific Knowledge, Civilization, and Colonial Rule in India, State University of New York Press, . Chakrabarti, Bhupati (2007), "Fifty years of the metric system in India and its adoption in our daily life", Current Science, 92 (3): 390–391, Indian Academy of Sciences. Chaudhuri, K. N. (1985), Trade and Civilisation in the Indian Ocean, Cambridge University Press, . Iwata, Shigeo (2008), "Weights and Measures in the