History of Hindu Mathematics: A Source Book v1.c7.s4.16

v1.c7.s4.16

¹ Thus *tallakṣaṇa*=10⁵³. This and the following show that the Hindus anticipated Archimedes by several centuries in the matter of evolving a series of number names which “are sufficient to exceed not only the number of a sand-heap as large as the whole earth, but one as large as the universe.” *Cf.* ‘*De harenae numero*’ in the 1544 edition of the *Opera* of Archimedes; quoted by Smith and Karpinski, *Hindu Arabic Numerals*, Boston, 1911, p. 16.