See also kharvar.
In Afghanistan , 20ᵗʰ century, a unit of mass. According to the Statesman's Yearbook 1993-94, the kharwar = 16 maunds of 80 pounds each = 1,280 pounds av., or approximately 580.6 kilograms. The survey by the United Nations Statistical Division¹, however, finds it to be approximately 565.28 kilograms, which agrees with the Economist's 1962 figure of 1246.2 pounds (565.27 kg).
Nineteenth century sources say the kharwar (khurwar) was about 471.1 kilograms in Kabul .²
1. United Nations, 1966.
2. Nowrozjee Furdoonjee.
Report on the Weights, Measures, and Coins of Cabool and Bokhara.
in
Reports and Papers, Political, Geographical, & Commercial, submitted to Government, by Sir Alexander Burnes, Bo. N. I.; Lieutenant Leech. Bo. E; Doctor Lord, Bo. M. S. ; and Lieutenant Wood, I. N.; employed on missions in the years 1835-36-37, in Scinde, Afghanistan, and Adjacent Countries.
Printed by Order of Government.
Calcutta: G. H. Huttmann, Bengal Military Orphan Press, 1839.
Page 155.
In India, 19ᵗʰ century, a unit of mass.
Kharwar, H[indi]. (P[ersian].) A measure, said to be about 700 lb., lit. an ass load : in Sindh it is called 850 lb.
H. H. Wilson, 1855, page 281.
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