Internationally Gems are generally weighted in CARATS. Carat being a measure of weight which means on metric scale 200 milligrams. This is a standard system and is recognized worldwide.
However, in India, though for business dealings carat is being used, but for retail sales the traditional concept of ‘RATTI’ is still in use. Ratti is approximately 182 milligrams. In few areas 120 milligrams is said to be a Ratti. (so a ratti can be 0.9 carat or 0.6 carat depending on where do u live)
Similarly the Bigah (length) and cents (area) vary from state to state… and worse a lot of the government’s land records are in these unstandardized units of measurement… Why does not ISI (Indian Standards Institute) goes ahead and standardizes these units… or abolish it… lest they create confusion.
BTW guys you might also like Carl Sagan’s audio documentary Pale Blue Dot
Is Ratti still used as a measure of weight?
Comment by pr3rna — October 13, 2007 @ 11:31 am
for gems.. esp those prescribed by astrologers.
Comment by Ankur Aggarwal — October 13, 2007 @ 11:36 am
Ankur: I was never aware that carat, apart from being a measure of the purity of gold, was a measure of the weight of gems! Thanks for educating me.
In Maharashtra, the weight of gold is often measured in what is called ‘toLa’ (pronounced with a heavy L). I wonder if this is related to carat or ratti?
Comment by mahendrap — October 16, 2007 @ 8:03 pm
BTW, I’d used the Pale Blue Dot words for my memorial to 9/11. It received a lot of responses. I’ll post the link to this video in the comments. Thank you very much.
Comment by mahendrap — October 16, 2007 @ 8:19 pm
luckily tola is standardized… 1 tola means 11.664 g. but unfortunately the other indigenous units are not standardized.
btw u would have heard the 4C of diamonds… cut, color, carat (weight) and clarity.
Comment by Ankur Aggarwal — October 16, 2007 @ 8:21 pm
sure
you are always welcome…
Comment by Ankur Aggarwal — October 16, 2007 @ 8:30 pm
what is kachi ratti
Comment by nitin — August 24, 2009 @ 10:06 pm
I am looking for 6-7 Ratti Pukhraj. But don’t understand how much carat it will be in Canada?
Comment by neena — September 7, 2009 @ 5:39 am
1Ratti is .9 carat, so 6-7 Ratti Pukhraj = 5.4-6.3 Carat Pukhraj anywhere
Comment by ankoo — December 15, 2009 @ 9:23 am