A guntha is a fortieth of an acre: 1,089 square feet, or 121 square yards, which is the square on a chain of 33 feet. Forty gunthas make one acre, exactly.
It is the working unit of land records in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Gujarat. On a 7/12 extract the area of a survey number is written in hectares and ares, but the same plot is bought, sold and argued over in acres and gunthas — “2 acre 15 guntha” is 2.375 acres, or 103,455 square feet.
The sizes you will actually see
- 1 guntha — 1,089 sq ft, about a 33 × 33 ft square.
- 5 guntha — 5,445 sq ft, which is also one kanal in the north.
- 10 guntha — 10,890 sq ft, a quarter of an acre.
- 40 guntha — 43,560 sq ft, one acre.
One rounding to know about
Some records round a guntha to 100 square metres, which is 1,076 square feet — about 1% less than the 1,089 the fortieth of an acre gives. The central MDDS annexure of land-record units prints both, the 100 m² figure as the metric equivalent. Over a 10 guntha plot the two differ by about 130 square feet, so on anything being priced it is worth asking which one the paperwork used.