Killa and Murabba Explained (2026)

What a killa is

Killa is widely used in Punjab and Haryana for a standard field of one acre. One acre is 4,840 square yards or 43,560 square feet, which is fixed by definition. We could not open an Act, rule or revenue department page that states "1 killa = 1 acre" as an official definition during this review, so treat the equivalence as the common working rule and confirm it against the record. Some records print the area in kanal and marla, and a killa is then described as 8 kanal. That follows only if the kanal is taken as one-eighth of an acre, which is the usual convention described in marla, kanal and killa in Punjab.

What a murabba is

Murabba means square. In Punjab and Haryana villages, a murabba is a square block of land, commonly described as 25 killas, that is, 25 acres, laid out in a 5 by 5 grid of killas. The grid comes from the old canal colony and village survey layout. We could not confirm the 25-killa figure from an official text. Murabba numbers are still used in revenue records in many villages as part of the field identity, for example in a murabba and killa number pair.

The number pair identifies the field on the village map. It is a location code more than a measurement, so the murabba number does not tell you the area of the plot. Read area from the area column.

Common relations (confirm locally)

Only the acre row is fixed. The remaining rows are working rules used by farmers and brokers. They are useful for a first estimate but not for a deed.

How killa and murabba show in records

In a jamabandi, the field is listed with a khasra number, and in many villages the khasra is written as a murabba number and a killa number. The area is then given in kanal and marla or in bigha, biswa. See jamabandi and fard explained and khasra and khatauni explained for how these entries fit together.

The village map (musavi or shajra) shows the grid. A field that has been divided, sold in part or merged with another may no longer match the clean one-acre grid, so the paper entries and the on-ground boundaries should be compared. See Bhu Naksha Punjab and Bhu Naksha Haryana.

Using killa and murabba when buying land

• Prices are often quoted per killa, which is easy to remember but easy to misread. Convert to a price per acre or per square yard.
• A deal for "half a murabba" is a large deal. Check whether the seller means 12.5 acres or something else.
• The seller may hold a share (hissa) in a killa. Check the khewat and khatauni in the record for the actual share.
• A killa on paper may have an irregular shape or a road cut through it. Compare area with a map.

Punjab and Haryana: points to check

Both states use kanal, marla and killa, but the exact definitions of kanal and marla in a given record, and any difference in practice between Punjab and Haryana, should be read from the state's own records. Our guide kanal and marla in Haryana and Punjab covers this. We did not verify state-by-state definitions from the revenue manuals.

Ceiling, use and conversion context

Area matters beyond price. Land ceiling limits, farmhouse limits and change-of-use rules are written in fixed or defined units, and a mismatch between your killa estimate and the legal area can matter. See land ceiling limits by state, agricultural land rules in Punjab and agricultural land rules in Haryana.

Checklist before you pay

1. Get the latest jamabandi and fard with the area in the record units.
2. Convert to acre and square metre with fixed factors.
3. Compare with the village map and a physical survey.
4. Confirm the seller's share in the khewat.
5. Write the area in acre or square metre in the agreement. See sale deed guide.
6. Complete the checks in land due diligence checklist.

Where the system comes from

The square-block layout of murabba and killa is associated with the planned survey of the Punjab plains and canal colonies, in which land was laid out on a regular grid so that each field could be identified by a pair of numbers. We did not open a primary text on this history, so treat it as background. What matters for a buyer is that the grid still shapes how fields are named in the record and on the village map, even where later partition has broken the neat squares.

Where a field has been split, the record may show the parent killa number with a sub-division, or a new number. Ask the patwari to explain how the numbering was changed and ask for the current map sheet.

What we could not confirm

We could not confirm from an official source that 1 killa equals 1 acre, that 1 murabba equals 25 killas, or the exact kanal and marla definitions in each state. This page is a DRAFT and flags those items as working rules.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

• Fixed conversions on this page (1 acre = 4,840 sq yd = 43,560 sq ft; 1 sq yd = 9 sq ft; 1 hectare = 2.471 acre) follow from standard definitions of the acre, yard and hectare.
• We could not open an official revenue department page, Act or gazette giving a bigha, biswa or killa value for the states named here during this review, so no local-unit value is stated as official. Read the definition in your own record.