Several methods of wntl7'Q numerals

'101

mentioned as Chandovioiti in the Apastamba-dhal'IDasUtra UOJ

Sabara 11M Cabout 200 A D. and not later than 400 A D.)
speaks of Pingala's work as on the same level with Panini"s
sntra It is unnecessary to offer furliher proofs of the antiquity
ofPingala's sntra.
There were several methods of writing numerals One was
the place value notation, in whioh the same numeral has different
values according to the place it occupies; for example, the fignre
two may have the valne of only two or twenty or two hundred
and so on accordlDg as it occupies the units place or tens place
or hundreds place Another way IS that of employing words to
denote complete numbers This was a veryreliab1e method when in
astronomy huge figures had to be employed and works were not
printed but only copied by hand. In ancient times, the writers
of mss. might often omit zeros or other figures, but if words with
a fixed meaning in relation to numbers were used, they would
not be so easily dropped and as many W01'ks were metrical, the
omission of a word, if any. might ha.ve been far more easily
detected It is difficult to say when this system was introduced.
By.t its beginnings are ancient For example, the word kf'/a. is
used In the Taittiriya 1105 Brahmana in the sense of four '.
Vara.hamihira. (beginning of the 6th cenfiury A.D.I employs
these word numerals but in the place value system (vide H of
Dh. vol m p 897 n.17b3.) The following is a list of some of the
V6Ty USIlaJ. numbers with the corresponding words employed
to indicate them It should be noted that the hat is not exhaustive. Any number of Sl"llonymsllD6 may be employed to indicate
the same number. Vide the lists in Alberuni (Sachau, vol. I.
pp. 1'14:-179) and Buhler's' IndIan Paleography' Cl A. vol 33;
appendix pp. 83-86 )
1103.
3tl1I 1if . .
1104.

o;rfi t,'Zlfu,=;l ... 31QliuMUTiiiii<d

'Ill! iNl a!bi\ulliillf Boe4

!II'n:'s

1105
1106

...miM

DD

4 8 10-11
';01

e=woi'tl... JIiIr.la

'l.{H.iiel<fi 1 1. S. P 54.

1'ril

m(1

.. G

'" I '

'lIT I 5 11. 1

4:e4Iii'iiiil

(liS ID BhaD Da]1 Collection oC the Bomha} Asiatic Society) ror e'Cample,
It may be 1l0ted that the
lfl'l1es tv. enly-five syuonyms for
iD
oue place, beSides
aud
meul10ncd e1sea.bere as d" ine bClngs.
ThIS work (In I 17-25) gives a. hst of the important word numerals as
fullows
H
'!('q' .MUI.." .. '
(Contir.lle4 on net /llZgc J

702
Zaro-SiiDl"a, kha, amba ra ( sk;y). gagan a, abhra Wm , binda,

piirna . U07
One- eka, bhiimi ( earth ). Indu ( the moon). rapa, Idf, ViSn11.
Two -dvi, aksi or looana (eye >, paksa. ASvin. dasra, dos or
dosan ( arm) , bhUJa, l"aIDa or l"amala (nvll lS)
'.l'hree-tri, kram a (from three steps of Visnu in ago 1 22. 18
L 155. 5 ). gram a ( 1D musi c "Rim a, pura ( oitles burnt
by RUdra ). lob ( earth, heaven and hell J. guna ( sattva,
raJas, tama s ), agni (garhapatl"a. illavanIya and
daks1 nigni ).
Four -Cat ur, abdh i (ooea n J. krta, yuga , veda, aruti, varna
( brilu nana eta. )
Five -pan can, fsu or sara (arro ws of Madana >, viyn (priDa,
apin a &0 ), bhiita (prln u;, waters, teJas, air, iiMiia),
aksa ( sense organ ), indri ya, Pind ava or Pindu-suta. .
Six- Sat, rasa (sweet, ao1d, salt &0 ), anga (tbe six auxiliary
soien ces of tbe Veda J. rlu (ssas ons), tarka (lOgICal
oategories from drall1Ja to sama"aua). darsana (SlX
of phIlosophy)
Seve n-Sa ptan, rsi or muni ( the seveD saps ), svara (niSida,
rsabh a &e. in music J. asv8 (seve n horses of lihe Bun,
who IS called sapta sva ' in ago V 45 9), girl, parvata
( Mahendra, Ma.la.ya, Saby a &0 ). dhita (elements of
the body, viz skin. blood &0 ).
Elgh t-ast an, vasu, sarpa (vide note 321 for eight nlgas ).
mang ala, mata ngala (elep hants of eIght quarte:rs ),
siddh i ( anim a, laghi ml &0 in yoga. ).

'loa

Numerals znd,cated by words

Nine-navan, sankhya: (from 1 to 9), Nanda (nine Nands. kings),

l'andbra m: ohidra, nidlu ( treaS1ll'6, mahapadma, sankha,
maks.ra &0 ), anka ( numel'als one to nine ), go m: graha
or nabhascara (planets )
Ten-daaan, paiikti, 11117.. Asii. or diSii ( direotions inclnding ilrdh"a
and adhara ). avat!ira, Riivana-siras.
Eleven-Ekidasan, Maheilvara, Rlldra.
Twelve-dvii:dasan, aditya, arks. siirya, misa
Thirteen-trayodasan, ViSve ( visve-devii.h ).
Fourteen-oaturdasan, Manu, Indra, bhuvana (worlds, bhiih &0.
seven, and seven piitalas ).
Fifteen-paiicadasan, tithi
Sixtesn-sodasan, kala (digIts of the Moon" nrpa or rajan UD8
( kings ), asti
Seventeen saptadasan, atyasti.
EIghteen-astidasan, dhrti
Nineteen-ekonavimsati, atidhrti
Twenty--vimsati. krti. nakha (naIls), anguli Cfingers of the
hands and feet together ).
Twentyone-ekavimsati. prakrti. mtirChani ( in mnsic)
Twantytwo-dvivimsati, jati, ikrti
Twenfiyfonr-oaturvimsati, Jina or siddha (24 Jain tIrthankaras).
Twentyfive--paiicavimsati. taltba (i5 Sii.nkhya principles. vide
note 1092)
Twenliyseven-aaptavimsati, bha, naksatra
Thirtytwo-dvatrimsat, dasana. or dvija ( both mean 'teeth').
Thirtytbree-trayastrimsat. sura ( gods ).
Fortynine-akonapaiicisat, tina ( notes in mnsio )
The above method of employing particular significant
words to denote certain numbers even in decimal place
value system is largely employed by Varahamihira in his
Paiicesiddhiintiki (e. g L 8 in note lOO.l above, v.m. 1)
1107 a.

'Qi(fifitnlial'ilsi5irilitsiW ....'5iilOQmaa.1sfliii..,,(BsidQ;"

qt

VI 1

59.

1108. There IS & 'oi\.. 4I<i3I ...'lQ' section in

chap 55-71 (16
aDCll!nt 11DgS Damed
Saholra, Paarava &.c.). Asb IS & VedlC metre,
each of its four pidas haVIng 161etlers as ID. Rg II 22 1;
is another
Ved\C metre With 68 letters ID {oar pidas. Dhrl1, Abdbrl1 Krtl, Prairb, aad
Akrti have respectively 72. 76, 80 84, 88 letters In ;"11 pidas, Tbe RkprituiUy& (16 83-90) S'a) s onmt'ElQi!; q\i'. ,
I 1[f.f

fimmI

'6h"StWfiI...ElQa n

Sbastd, Allahabad (1931 )

'Om.

'.. cd

by

qcil..-nif.
Dev&

704

HZ8tor]J

of DharmaliiBlra

l Sec. n, Oh, XIX

and In Brhat-samhiti 8. 20 and by all later astronomIOal

writers U09 The partioular matter to be noted IS that the first
word in a. grOUP (denotIng a number) is to be assigned to the
units
next to its left in the tans place, so that a word
lIke
saptisVl-veda.-sankhyam' becomes 4a7 ( by the rule
ankinim va.mato gatfh ' )
Another method for expressing numbers IS elaborated by
Aryabhat& in his
11111 ( verse 3) where the letters
from Tt (kI. also) to m have the values of 1 to 25, whIle yu, ,a,la,
va,
Ba, Ba and ha stand for 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 and 100
and so on towards mora complicated matters

sa.

The fourth anga in a panolnga is called Yoga. There lS no

direot astronomioal phenomena correspondlng to it It is
caloulated from. the sum. of the longltudes of the Sun and the
Moon (or it is the time during which the sun and the moon
together accomplish 13 degrees and 20 minutes at space) When
thIS amounts to degrees 13 20 the first Yoga called Vlskambha
ends; when it amounts to 26. 40 the 2nd Yoga. Prltl ends and
so on. The yogas are 27 ( tha.t thns make 360 degreae) as stated
in the Ratnamilii.lV. 1-3 and are as follows Name
Deity
15 VSoJEa- Varuua
1. Viskambha-Yama
16. Slddhi-Ganeila
2. Prlti - VIsnu
17. VyatIpitB-SIV&.
3 Ayusmat-Candra.
18. Variyas- Kubara
4 Saubhigya-Biahml
19 Parigha-Vlsvaltarma.u
5 Sobhana - Brhaspati
20 Siva- MItra
6 Atiganda-Oancira
21 Siddha-Kirtlkeya
7 Sukarman22. Sidhya - BivitrI
8. Dhrtf-Apah
23 Subha-Kama1l:
9 Siila-Sarpa
24 Su.kla-Gaul'I
10 Ganda- Agni
25.
Brahman - ABVlnaU
11 Vrddhi - Siiry-a
26 Aludra-Pltrs
12 Dhruva-Prthvt
27 Valdhrti - Aditl
13 Vyilghita-PavanB
14. Harsana-Rudra
1109. How neatly huge numbers can be IndIcated by words may ,b;
dlustrated by the Rt
I 28 -mt'r-iF.tlbdiii\4,. ...,.i}:q*il'
- a - Cl
.......
mu "
These come to 1972947179 day
... iIII ...' .. ."dl"1I1.. ., q'"
d by
io Tbe Dakgillki vex88 3 has beeD ddfexeDtly Interprcte
11 ho'-- VIde Fleet 111 JRAS In 1911 pp 109-12a for Xrrabbata
different se '.... g
system al1d pp 115-1l1S lor explanatlol1 of the verae