Measuring Instruments ⚖️
Some form of measuring, along with navigation, would have been one of the earliest mathematical activities. Clay tokens and sealed clay bullae containing small counters seem to have been used to enumerate and account for quantities such as sheep flocks in Mesopotamia as early as the 8th–7th millennium BCE. Every specific civilization since then has been noticed to have had systems of (evolving) measures. Often, the standardisation of measures also served as a proxy for the sovereign, with rulers issuing, displaying, and enforcing official standards to assert authority, ensure justice, and legitimise taxation, such as the royal cubit rods of Egypt, the Hammurabi stele proclaiming Mesopotamian standards, or medieval English Exchequer yardsticks.
This also meant that measures and standards have always been sites of contestation and negotiation, often becoming arenas where political power, authority, and legitimacy are worked out. We see this in the public display of standard measures following popular demand in temple inscriptions such as in Seeyamangalam, and also in the introduction of the metric system in France after the French Revolution, where redefining units was part of redefining the notions of sovereignty and equality.
Measuring instruments, as concrete manifestations of measures and standards, are then products of various negotiations, expectations, social needs, and contestations. Further, they play a major role in relating standards, measurement, and calculation, and in arbitrating justice. In this sense they embody complex histories and play a significant role in shaping social lives.
Knowing what kind of instruments were used, their various affordances, social and political contexts thus helps us not only understand the types and kinds of measurement standards and how they were established, but also the possible social relations they presupposed and reproduced. For instance, an instrument like the Kuliayan, which emerged as measure of 'wages in paddy' in the Kuttanad region of Keralam, can be read as embedded in the complex history of changing labour relations as argued here [insert link to Kuliayan article].
Valuation and measuring instruments
The determination or ascription of value to anything (whether it be monetary value or any other form of ranking) often involves the act of physical measuring using a measuring instrument, followed by computational activities that filter and abstract 'messy' realities into standardised numbers. The relative extent of each process varies from instrument to instrument. While producing a length measure through a simple ruler requires just reading the marking, vernier calipers demand some computations. Notional measuring instruments like credit score calculators or minimum wage calculators, which rely on complex algorithms and legal arbitration, it can be argued that naturalise inequalities by translating risks into profits while erasing unpaid care work or lived precarity. Investigating how measuring instruments materialise exclusions, computations distribute value flows, and both together legitimise hierarchies as "objective math" can thus deepen our understanding of social relations and stratification.
Our collection, questions and an invitation
We have digitised some of the measuring instruments kept in museums across South India. We hope that interested individuals will contextualise these instruments and tell complex stories by exploring the social history of measurement. While one may engage with measuring instruments critically, as delineated above, it may not be possible to do so for every instrument. There may be a lack of sources to learn from, or certain instruments may resist interpretation, harder to trace or have long histories.
However, there are some questions that we feel can potentially be asked of any instrument. Hopefully, these can aid inquiries aimed at understanding the context and past of these measuring devices. These questions are only suggestive, one may, of course, ask different ones as well.
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What was this instrument used for? What exactly did it measure?
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In what unit or system did it measure?
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Is it possible to know what was used before this instrument came into use?
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Why was this particular instrument introduced?
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What is being used today to measure the same thing?
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Do you think someone you know, or their ancestors, might have used this or a similar instrument? What do they have to share?
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Where was it primarily used?
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Who was using it, were they artisans, labourers, professionals like surveyors, traders, scientists, or others?
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Where was it made, and by whom?
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How was it calibrated, and what standard was used for calibration?
Going further, one may ask more involved questions, ones that go beyond understanding just the instrument itself, and instead explore it in relation to society.
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What negotiations, of class, caste, gender, or community, shaped this instrument's design, calibration, and enforcement, and whose knowledge or labour was appropriated in the process? Like how Veṭṭiyāṉ could have been the one to physically measure land using foot-pole in medieval Tamil Nadu but was denied access to the formal training in methods of computation using Eṇcuvaṭi [1].
The Kaṇakkaṉ and the Veṭṭiyāṉ worked in tandem, and both probably required each other’s experience and skills, but the computing and authorizing of the results of that computation resided squarely with the Kaṇakkaṉ [1].
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Who controlled its use (e.g., state officials, merchants, priests, or labourers), how was it used? Did it serve as arbiter in some disputes? If yes, in what kinds of disputes, over wages, land, tribute, or trade, did it serve as arbiter, and how?
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How did this instrument's affordances (material form, scale, precision) filter, erase, or abstract away embodied realities like seasonal labour rhythms, ecological variability, or social inequalities in the act of quantification?
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What does its evolution (or obsolescence) reveal about shifts in power relations, such as colonial impositions, establishment of new Sovereigns, market expansions, anti caste assertions, or technological disruptions?
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How did it legitimise justice or perpetuate injustice, and how did its numbers travel into larger systems of governance, abstraction, and erasure? Who were the ones to benefit and who were disadvantaged?
However, these questions may feel inadequate when trying to understand instruments that are mass-produced in factory settings, following standard protocols and using machinery. How do standards, as defined by conventions such as the Metre Convention, translate into concrete instruments? What consequences do these translations have? How do such standards become embedded in the instruments themselves? And so on, these could be some suggested questions in that regard. We hope our collections and stories will inspire interested persons to ask more pointed questions of measuring instruments, helping them understand the hows, whys, and whats of the roles these devices have played in the past and continue to play in our lives.
References and further Readings
[1]. Mathematics and Society: Numbers and Measures in Early Modern South India by Senthil Babu D.
[2]. Trust in Numbers: The Pursuit of Objectivity in Science and Public Life by Theodore Porter.
[3]. Measures and Men by Witold Kula.
Preview
| Title | Vernacular Name | Place | Category | Access Rights |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 1 Anna |
1 அணா | Creative Commons (CC BY SA NC 4.0), Deed | ||
 1 Dot Weighing Stone |
1 புள்ளி எடைக்கல் | Creative Commons (CC BY SA NC 4.0), Deed | ||
 1 Litre Measure |
மண்ணெண்ணெய் அளத்தல் கருவி | Creative Commons (CC BY SA NC 4.0), Deed | ||
 1 Ounce Weighing Stone |
1 அவுன்ஸ் எடைக்கல் | Creative Commons (CC BY SA NC 4.0), Deed | ||
 1 Sovereign Weighing Stone |
1 சவரண் எடைக்கல் | Creative Commons (CC BY SA NC 4.0), Deed | ||
 1 Sovereign Weighing Stone |
1 சவரண் எடைக்கல் | Creative Commons (CC BY SA NC 4.0), Deed | ||
 1 Thola Weighing Stone |
1 தோலா எடைக்கல் | Creative Commons (CC BY SA NC 4.0), Deed | ||
 1/12 Paisa Anna |
1/12 பைசா அணா | Creative Commons (CC BY SA NC 4.0), Deed | ||
 1/2 Ounce Weighing Stone |
1/2 அவுன்ஸ் எடைக்கல் | Creative Commons (CC BY SA NC 4.0), Deed | ||
 1/2 Ounce Weighing Stone |
1/2 அவுன்ஸ் எடைக்கல் | Creative Commons (CC BY SA NC 4.0), Deed |
