History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c82.802

v6.c82.802

There were several methods of writing numerals One was the place value notation, in which the same numeral has different values according to the place it occupies; for example, the figure two may have the value of only two or twenty or two hundred and so on according 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 very reliable 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 works were metrical, the omission of a word, if any, might have been far more easily detected It is difficult to say when this system was introduced. But its beginnings are ancient For example, the word *kṛta* is used in the Taittirīya¹¹⁰⁵ Brāhmaṇa in the sense of 'four'. Varāhamihira (beginning of the 6th century A. D.) employs these word numerals but in the place value system (vide H of Dh. vol. III p 897 n. 1763.) The following is a list of some of the very usual numbers with the corresponding words employed to indicate them It should be noted that the list is not exhaustive. Any number of synonyms¹¹⁰⁶ may be employed to indicate the same number. Vide the lists in Alberuni (Sachau, vol. I. pp. 174–179) and Buhler's 'Indian Paleography' (I. A. vol 33; appendix pp. 83–86)