Marla, Kanal and Killa in Punjab — What They Mean

What a Killa Actually Is

A Killa is simply Punjab's local revenue-record term for a full acre: 1 Killa = 1 Acre = 8 Kanal = 43,560 square feet (4,840 square yards). It isn't a unit of a different size dressed up under a local name — it's the identical acre you'd find in any English-language land record, used interchangeably with the word "acre" in everyday Punjab transactions and very often printed directly into the jamabandi itself as the area heading farmers and brokers actually read.

This is worth stating plainly because it's the single most common point of confusion this article exists to clear up: Killa is not the same thing as Bigha, and the two should never be used interchangeably. Punjab's own regional Bigha — where it appears at all in current usage, which is now relatively rare — has historically been reckoned at roughly half an acre (about 2,420 square yards) in some secondary references, meaning one Killa would equal roughly two of that regional Bigha, not one. Other secondary sources describe a different, larger Haryana/Punjab Bigha figure closer to the Rajasthan "Pucca" standard instead. We were not able to resolve this inconsistency to one confident figure — which is exactly why this guide, and its companion piece on Haryana and Punjab's Kanal-Marla system, both treat Bigha as a unit to confirm locally in this belt rather than one to calculate from, while treating Killa, Kanal and Marla as the reliable, standardised reference units a Punjab buyer can actually build a price calculation on.

Master Conversion Table: Marla, Kanal and Killa

Because a Killa is simply an acre, it sits at the top of the same Karam-based chain covered in our Haryana-Punjab Kanal-Marla guide. Here's the full chain with Killa included as the acre-equivalent column.

One hectare, for reference, works out to approximately 2.471 Killa — a figure worth keeping handy if you're converting a Punjab holding for a ceiling-law check expressed in hectares, since Punjab's agricultural land ceiling limits are stated in acres and hectares, not in Killa or Kanal.

The Murabba: Punjab's Canal-Colony Block Unit

One term you'll sometimes encounter alongside Killa in an older Punjab revenue document is the Murabba (मुरब्बा) — a square survey block standardised at 25 Killa (25 acres), approximately 10 hectares. The Murabba isn't a unit buyers transact in directly today; it's a block-survey term from the canal-colony settlements laid out across undivided Punjab, where large tracts of newly irrigated land were surveyed and allotted in regular square blocks for administrative convenience.

Why this still matters for a present-day buyer: older Punjab land records sometimes reference a parcel by its historical "Murabba number" alongside its Khasra number, the way a present-day record might reference a survey or plot number. If you come across a "Murabba No." entry in an old revenue document or family land record, it's identifying which original 25-Killa survey block the parcel was carved out of — useful context for understanding how a larger estate was historically subdivided, though it isn't something you'll need to convert for a modern-day price calculation unless you're piecing together an inherited or long-held family landholding's history.

How Killa Appears in the Jamabandi and Fard

Punjab's land records follow the same broad structure covered in our companion guide, Jamabandi and Fard Explained, but it's worth being specific about how area is actually written into a Punjab document:

• The jamabandi's area column is usually written in Kanal-Marla, not Killa directly. A typical entry reads something like "2-6" or "2K-6M," meaning 2 Kanal and 6 Marla — you convert that to Killa (acres) yourself using the chain above when you need an acre-equivalent figure, exactly as shown in our companion Kanal-Marla guide's worked conversion example.
• Killa appears more often in verbal usage, listings and older documents than as the literal unit printed in a modern jamabandi's area column. When a seller or broker tells you a holding is "4 Killa," they're describing a 4-acre parcel in the everyday term Punjab actually uses for that size — it's worth confirming the underlying Kanal-Marla figure on the jamabandi itself rather than taking the Killa figure as a final number.
• The fard — the certified extract of the jamabandi issued for a specific transaction or legal purpose — carries the same area figure forward. Whatever unit the underlying jamabandi recorded area in, the fard will state the identical figure, so cross-checking a verbal "Killa" quote against the fard's own Kanal-Marla entry is the direct way to confirm it.
• A mutation (intkal) entry following a sale will also carry the area forward in the same Kanal-Marla terms, updating the ownership column while leaving the area figure itself unchanged from the parent record, unless the transaction itself involved subdividing the parcel.

Practical Guidance for Punjab Buyers

Worked example: Converting a "6 Killa" quote to Kanal-Marla for cross-checking against the jamabandi. A seller quotes a parcel at "6 Killa." Since 1 Killa = 8 Kanal, that's 6 × 8 = 48 Kanal. If the jamabandi instead states the parcel as, say, "47 Kanal 10 Marla," you have a real discrepancy to resolve before proceeding — 47 Kanal 10 Marla converts to 47 + (10 ÷ 20) = 47.5 Kanal, which is 0.5 Kanal (10 Marla) short of the quoted 48-Kanal figure. That's a small gap in this example, but it's exactly the kind of mismatch that's worth catching on paper before it's reflected in a price, and it only surfaces once you've converted both figures to the same unit and compared them directly.

With that in mind, here's what to actually check on a Punjab purchase:

• Pull the jamabandi or fard and read the Kanal-Marla figure directly, rather than relying on a verbal "X Killa" quote — the revenue record, not the conversation, is the figure that will matter at registration and mutation.
• Convert the jamabandi's Kanal-Marla figure to Killa (acres) yourself using the chain in this guide, and compare it against whatever Killa figure you were quoted — a mismatch is worth raising directly with the seller or a local revenue official before you proceed.
• Check the sale deed's own stated area carefully once drafted. Punjab sale deeds typically state area in Kanal-Marla with an acre or hectare equivalent alongside it; confirm that equivalent was calculated correctly using the standard chain, not an approximate or rounded figure.
• If an old family record references a Murabba number, treat it as historical context about the parcel's original survey block rather than a figure you need to convert for the current transaction — the present-day Khasra number and Kanal-Marla area are what the current record and deed will actually use.
• Never assume Killa and Bigha are interchangeable if both terms appear in connection with the same parcel — as covered above, they're genuinely different-sized units in Punjab, and conflating them is an easy way to misprice a holding by close to half.
• For a ceiling-law check on a multi-parcel Punjab holding, convert every parcel to acres or hectares before summing — Punjab's agricultural land ceiling provisions, like every other state's in this corridor, are stated in acres or hectares, never in Killa, Kanal or Marla directly.

Frequently Asked Questions