Dhur, Kattha and Dismil in Bihar and East UP (2026)

Why dhur, kattha and dismil confuse buyers

In Bihar and the eastern districts of Uttar Pradesh, land is still spoken of in bigha, kattha (कट्ठा), dhur (धुर) and dismil (डिसमिल). A seller in Muzaffarpur, Gorakhpur or Ballia may quote a price per kattha or per dismil, while the record of rights and the registry may use acre, hectare or decimal. The danger is not the arithmetic. The danger is that the same word does not always mean the same area.

This guide explains how the units relate to each other in general, which conversions are fixed by definition, and which values you must never accept from a broker. It follows the same rule as our other unit pages: we give a number only where a definition or an official source supports it. For the wider picture, start with our guide to land measurement units in India.

What is fixed and what is not

Some conversions do not depend on any district. They follow from the definitions of the acre, the hectare and the square foot.

Notice what is missing. We have not given a square-foot value for the kattha, the dhur or the bigha. Reference works and converter sites publish figures, and they disagree with each other by district. We could not confirm a single statewide value from the Bihar revenue department or a gazette, so we do not print one.

How the units nest inside each other

The usual local pattern is that a bigha is divided into kattha, and a kattha is divided into dhur. Many people in Bihar describe a bigha as 20 kattha and a kattha as 20 dhur. Treat that as a common local convention, not as a rule written into every record. We could not confirm it from an official text for every district, and there are places where the number of kattha in a bigha differs.

What matters is the chain. If the number of dhur in a kattha is 20, then a plot of 3 kattha 10 dhur is 70 dhur. If your district uses a different chain, the same plot works out differently. This is why the sentence in the record, not the word on the phone, decides the area.

• Ask the seller which bigha they mean, and whether it is the bigha used in the village record or a figure quoted from habit.
• Ask how many kattha make one bigha and how many dhur make one kattha in that village.
• Ask for the same area in acre or decimal as written in the khatiyan or jamabandi extract.
• Write the answers in your notes and, later, in the agreement for sale.

Dismil and decimal in eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar

Dismil (डिसमिल) is the local form of the word decimal. In most speech it refers to one hundredth of an acre, the same size as a decimal. We could not confirm from an official text that every district that says dismil means exactly one hundredth of an acre, so check the unit definition in your own record.

If the dismil is one hundredth of an acre, the conversion is simple and can be done from the fixed values above. A plot recorded as 25 dismil is 0.25 acre, which is 10,890 sq ft. If the record gives only a bigha or kattha figure, ask for the decimal or acre figure to be written alongside, because decimal and acre are the units that are least open to dispute.

Which record states the area

In Bihar the revenue records are kept by the Revenue and Land Reforms Department, and the state runs a land records portal at biharbhumi.bihar.gov.in. When we opened the home page, the page returned no readable text to our tools, so we could not confirm which area units its screens show. Do not assume the portal prints kattha. Many records show the area in acre and decimal, and some show hectare.

In eastern Uttar Pradesh the land record is the khatauni and khasra, and the area is normally recorded in hectare. Our guide to UP Bhulekh land records shows how to read these. If the khatauni says hectare and the seller says bigha, you need the seller's bigha definition in writing, because the khatauni will not translate it for you.

A simple method to check any area quote

• Get the area in the record: the figure and the unit printed on the khatiyan, jamabandi or khatauni.
• Convert the record figure to square feet using only fixed values: acre, hectare, decimal.
• Convert the seller's local quote the same way, using the seller's own definition of kattha and dhur, written down.
• If the two square-foot figures do not match, stop and ask why. A gap can be a different bigha, a rounding habit or a real shortfall.
• Measure the plot on site, or have a surveyor do it, and compare with the map. See cadastral maps explained.
• Put the final area in acre or square feet in the sale deed along with the local unit. See how to read land area in a sale deed.

This method costs a few hours and removes the most common source of price disputes in this region.

Red flags specific to unit-based quotes

• The seller will not say how many square feet are in the kattha they are using.
• The area in the agreement is only in a local unit with no acre, decimal or hectare figure.
• The record and the seller use different units and the seller says the difference does not matter.
• A broker supplies a converter-site table as proof. A converter is not a record.
• The plot is part of a larger khata and the area for sale is described only as a number of kattha, without a boundary description or map.

Any one of these is a reason to pause. Together they are a reason to walk away until a licensed surveyor and a lawyer have looked at the papers. Our land due diligence checklist lists the other checks to run in parallel.

What we could not confirm

We could not open a Bihar government text that fixes the size of the bigha, kattha or dhur, and we could not confirm whether the portal home page shows kattha anywhere. We did not use lender, broker or converter pages as a source. If you hold a Bihar official notification that defines these units for a district, send it to us and we will add it. Until then, treat all kattha and dhur square-foot figures you read online, including ours if we ever add them, as unverified for your village.

For comparison with other states, see bigha in Uttar Pradesh and bigha to square yard, acre and hectare.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

• Bihar land records portal, Revenue and Land Reforms Department (home page opened; it returned no readable text)