The acre's clean fraction
The guntha is one of the few traditional Indian units with an exact, invariant definition: one fortieth of an acre, i.e. 1,089 sq ft, everywhere it is used. It descends from survey practice — a guntha is one square chain divided appropriately: a 33 ft × 33 ft square, and 40 of them tile an acre exactly (the traditional acre being 66 ft × 660 ft). Because the definition ties to the standardized acre rather than a local yard, guntha figures travel safely between states.
Where you will meet it
Maharashtra's land record, the 7/12 extract (satbara utara), records agricultural holdings in hectare-are but villagers and brokers quote in acre-guntha: "2 acre 15 guntha" style. Karnataka, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh use the gunta spelling for the same unit, and Gujarat uses guntha alongside its bigha. A common rural transaction size — 10 guntha, quarter of an acre — is 10,890 sq ft, enough for a farmhouse plot or a small orchard block.
In converted (non-agricultural) urban land, prices shift to per-square-foot, which is where the 1,089 figure earns its keep: 5 guntha at ₹500/sq ft is 5 × 1,089 × 500 = ₹27.2 lakh.
Guntha conversions
Everything follows from 1 guntha = 1,089 sq ft: multiply guntha by 1,089 for square feet, by 101.17 for square meters, and divide guntha by 40 for acres. The relationship with the southern cent is also exact: 1 guntha = 2.5 cents, since 40 guntha and 100 cents both make one acre. Use the converter to see any guntha figure in every unit at once, drawn to scale.