What does vara mean?
Vara is a historical South Asian unit whose two recorded English senses belong to money and measurement. In India it denoted a monetary unit equal to one hundredth of a rupee, making it numerically equivalent to a paisa today, although the historical names are not interchangeable in all contexts. In Sri Lanka, vara was a unit of weight equal to one thousandth of a kilogram, or one gram. The term is now rare or obsolete, and a speaker encountering it should usually understand it as historical rather than as a living everyday denomination. It appears in dictionaries and older writing on Indian and Sri Lankan systems of currency and measurement. Although its numerical relationships are simple, vara is useful to readers tracing older accounts, monetary histories, or linguistic exchanges between Sanskrit and English.
nounA former Indian monetary unit equal to one hundredth of a rupee; also, in Sri Lanka, a former unit of weight equal to one thousandth of a kilogram.
- A former Indian monetary unit equal to one hundredth of a rupee.
- A former Sri Lankan unit of weight equal to one thousandth of a kilogram, or one gram.
"The account records the sum in rupees, annas, and varas."
"Several silver coins dated to the period were denominated in varas."
"The laboratory recorded the sample's mass in varas before converting the figure into grams."
The regular historical plural is varas.
"The collector acquired a small group of coins struck in varas."
Vara was a rupee's hundredth—and, in Sri Lankan measurement, a thousandth of a kilogram.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of vara
The English noun derives from Sanskrit varā (वरा), an old monetary denomination. The monetary use was borrowed directly from Sanskrit into English during the historical development of Indo-Anglical vocabulary.
Related word forms
How vara is actually used
The term is historical and uncommon in contemporary English. The monetary sense is chiefly associated with older Indian accounts, while the weight sense belongs to Sri Lankan measurement vocabulary.