Elements of South-Indian Palæography, from the Fourth to the Seventeenth Century A.D. c6.28

c6.28

The following forms, though collected from inscriptions of different countries and dates, will show the elements of the Phœnician system of numerals: || = 2³); ||| = 3⁴), |||| = 4⁵); 𐤖 or 𐤗 = 10⁶); *H* or 𐤘 = 20⁷). For ‘hundreds’ the sign 𐤙⁸) or 𐤚⁹) is used, and to express the number of ‘hundreds’ dots or strokes are put at the right. Thus 𐤖𐤘𐤘𐤙| = 150¹⁰); ||| 𐤘 𐤘 𐤚 • • = 243¹¹). In the Palmyrene system we find an adaptation of this. The hieratic and demotic numerals (a development and simplification of the hieroglyphic or primitive system) were also certainly used in Egypt before the possibility of any civilization in India. Thus the Egypto-Phœnician system of numerals was in wide use long before we find traces of any such system in India; and there can be no doubt that the Phœnician was the system used by those natives of India who wrote their language in the N. Açoka characters¹²). If, however, we compare the numerals in the S. Açoka inscriptions, it is evident that, though the system there found more or less corresponds with the Egypto-Phœnician, a marked development is, nevertheless, presented in some respects. The circumstances already mentioned (on p. 60) show that this development was going on in the third century B. C.; it consisted not in a general modification of the system, but in the invention of new and simpler symbols for the compounds which were hitherto in use. In the last discovered (and perhaps latest) Açoka inscriptions examples occur which show that about the third century B. C. distinct figures were in use for the units, tens and also for hundreds; the last being qualified by marks on the right to express the number of hundreds. The general similarity of this system to the Egyptian demotic is thus, I think, sufficient to warrant a provisional conclusion that the S. Indian (Açoka) system is derived from it, but developed in India. Of the Egyptian demotic figures for units, those for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 have a striking likeness to the corresponding Cave numerals¹.