Tola (mass)

A tola is a traditional South Asian unit of mass, now standardised as 0.375 troy ounces (11.6638038 gram).

One tola was traditionally the weight of 100 tola seeds, and its exact weight varied according to locality. The tola approximated to the weight of the silver rupee coin issued by the British East India Company, and so under British rule the tola became standardised at the same weight as this coin, that is 180 grains/0.375 ounces troy (11.6638038 grams).

Although the tola has been officially replaced by metric units, it is still in current use, and is a popular denomination for gold bullion bars in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Singapore, with a ten tola bar being the most commonly traded. It is also used in most gold markets (bazars/souks) in the United Arab Emirates.

It was also used in Aden and Zanzibar. In the latter, 1 tola was equivalent to 11.398 grams.

The word tola is also the slang term for a measure of charras (Indian hashish). It is, however, exceedingly rare that a piece of charras sold as a tola will come anywhere near this standard of 11.66 grams.

Conversion

1 Tola = 12 Masha
1 Masha = 8 Ratti

ee also

*Tael
*Mann
*Dharni