Talk:Kos (measure)

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[edit] Dubious

[edit] Obvious incorrect information on Vitasta

I think that this is meant to say 2 vitastas, not 4. Just thinking about it as you read it indicates there's definitely a mistake there since human anatomy can't have changed that much since 2500BC! I'm not going to change this now but hope it gets resolved by someone else soon. Donama 02:04, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Bad source/reference -- would violate WP:RELY guideline

The source is a geocities page, whose source is an annotation in an Internet publication of verse 5 of chapter 69 of book 3 (Aranya Kanda) of an ancient Indian epic poem/story (Ramayana, which has over 500 chapters spread over 7 books). The summary of ancient Indian units is given by the translators/annotators as follows:

The Ancient Indian measures for distance, as per Kautilya's Artha Shaastra, a republication of Penguin are: 1 angula = 3/4 of present day inch; 4 angula-s = dharnugraha [bow grip]= 3 in; 8 angula-s = 1 dhanurmuSTi [fist with thumb raised]= 6 in; 12 angula-s = 1 vitasta [span-distance of stretched out palm between the tips of a person's thumb and little finger]= 9 in; 4 vitasta-s = 1 aratni / hasta [cubit]= 18 in; 4 aratni-s = 1 danDa / dhanus [bow]= 6 ft; 10 danDa-s = 1 rajju = 60 ft; 2 rajju-s = 1 paridesha = 120 ft; 2000 dhanus-s = 1 krosa / goruTa = 4000 yards or 2 1/4 miles, nearly 3.66 km; 4 krosa-s = 1 yojana = 9 miles, nearly 15 km; and this being so, the British revenue measured a yojana as a 5 mile distance and Chambers and Oxfords has this 5 mile figure in their dictionaries, while traditionally a yojana is said as a distance of 10 miles.

Those translators/annotators are credited as:

...translated and presented by Sri Desiraju Hanumanta Rao (Bala, Aranya and Kishkindha Kanda ) and Sri K. M. K. Murthy (Ayodhya and Yuddha Kanda) with contributions from Durga Naaga Devi and Vaasudeva Kishore (Sundara Kanda); Smt. Desiraju Kumari; Smt. K. Rajeswari...

None of this would be considered properly verifiable by the Wikipedia guidelines (see WP:RELY). I am removing this source from the page and adding a notice about the lack of references. --Donama 02:04, 29 September 2007 (UTC)