Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c9.s2.t1.2

c9.s2.t1.2

In the Brāhmī inscriptions and coin-legends we find a peculiar system of numeral notation, the explanation of which is chiefly due to J. Stevenson, E. Thomas, A. Cunningham, Bhāū Dājī and Bhagvānlāl Indrājī.⁵ Up to the year A. D. 594-95 it is used exclusively, and later together with the decimal system.⁶ It appears also exclusively in the Bower MS. and in the other MSS. from Kashgar,⁷ as well as together with the decimal system, — chiefly in the pagination, — in the old MSS. of the Jainas of Western India and of the Bauddhas of Nepāl as late as the 16th century.⁸ And the Malayālam MSS. have preserved it to the present day.⁹