Elements of South-Indian Palæography, from the Fourth to the Seventeenth Century A.D. c6.s3: § 3. The Telugu-Canarese Numeral Figures
Elements of South-Indian Palæography, from the Fourth to the Seventeenth Century A.D. c6.s3
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§ 3. The Telugu-Canarese Numeral Figures
c6.s3.1
These figures appear in common use about 1300 A. D.¹ with value by position and also the cipher, which is always represented in S. Indian documents by a small circle. In Northern India a dot also appears with this signification, but the necessity of writing on palm-leaves has, in S. India, led to the adoption of the circular form as alone perfectly distinct. The earliest specimens of these numerals that I have met with occur on the outer rims of the plates of a çāsana of 1087 A. D., already mentioned (p. 21 *n.*) as E. These do not go beyond nine, but the cipher is plain in an inscription of much the same date.
c6.s3.2
¹ If Sir W. Elliot's collection of transcripts of inscriptions in the neighbourhood of the Krishṇā and Godāvari can be trusted, the notation of dates by these numerals was not uncommon in the eleventh century; but I am inclined to think that this is not the case, and that the copyist has often put the figures for words written at full length in the original. The oldest inscription with a date in figures in Java appears to be that given in pl. ii. of Dr. Cohen-Stuart's “Kawi Oorkonden”; it is of the 9th century, and is, therefore, strangely enough, older than any S. Indian document with a date in figures.
c6.s3.3
The Telugu-Canarese numerals (as given in Plate xxiii. from a Haḷa-kannaḍa ᴍꜱ. of 1428 A. D.) are almost identical in all the inscriptions across the peninsula, and remained the same till quite recently. In the Telugu inscriptions I have, however, observed, in some cases, a slight difference in the form of the figure 5, which sometimes wants the middle connecting stroke. The figure 3 is generally perpendicular in the Telugu inscriptions.
c6.s3.4
The Telugu-Canarese system of fractions is, like the Tamil, based on a division of the unit into sixteen parts; they are marked by the N. Indian system, and this appears to be of recent introduction.
c6.s3.5
A comparison of the numeral figures in Plate xxiii. will conclusively show that they are all more or less cursive modifications of the Western Cave numerals. As the Cave numerals are from Western and Northern India, and present a number of distinct types, there is no real difficulty about some which present variations of form, for the perfectly evident origin of 1, 2, 3, 4 and 7 quite justifies the conclusion that the smaller number, of which the origin is less obvious, do in fact come from the same source². The origin of the S. Indian numeral figures is, thus, the same as that of the S. Indian alphabets.
c6.s3.6
² The Gobar is from Woepcke's “Mémoire” p. 49; the Nāgari is from Prinsep's “Essays” as collected by Mr. Thomas.