ANCIENT INDIAN NUMBERING SYSTEM

Namaste as the heading says, now I am going to discuss about the oldest numbering system in the world that is “The Ancient Indian Numbering System” also called as “Mana Sankyamanam”.Every one of us already learnt about the “Hindu – Arabic Numeral System” in out school which was first developed by “Aryabhatta of Kusumapura” in 5th century and a century later Brahmagupta introduced the symbol of zero for the first time. After developing the Hindu numbering system and zero concept in India it got slowly spread to the surrounding regions like Arab due to their commercial and military activities with our country.

Due to this the Hindu-Arabic numeral system came into existence which then spread to Europe due to the science knowledge and merchants trading which became a simple and stable Numbering System. As the western countries learnt this Numbering System through Arabs they modified it a little and they called them as Arabic numerals l. Hence, the current western numbering system is modified version of Hindu numbering system which also consists of Sanskrit-Devanagari notations.

Reputedly, the Young Prince Budhha successfully competed for the hand of Princess Gopa by developing a number table that included names for the powers of ten beyond the twentieth decimal place. Now let’s start our main topic. I think you all know the general numbering system I mean place value notations but upto what extent?? Thousands,Lakhs,10 lakhs,crores etc etc.. may be till crores after that we just add a prefix to that crores word like 10 crore, 100 crore etc. But in the Ancient Indian Numbering System the last place value is not crore it is something beyond that. Now no more waiting let’s come to the point according to western numbering system we have

Ten=10

Hundred=100

Thousand=1,000

Lakh=1,00,000

Million=1,000,000

Billion=1,000,000,000

Trillion=1,000,000,000,000

After crore there is no name for the numbers coming we just add prefixes as said earlier but the ancient scholars of India had already given names to each and every place value beyond 20th decimal point.

Sahasram=10³

Ayutham=10⁴

Laksha=10⁵

Padi Lakshalu=10⁶

Koti=10⁷

Dasha Koti =10⁸

Shata Koti=10⁹

Sahasra Koti(Arbhudam)=10¹⁰

Nyurbhudam=10¹¹

Kharvam=10¹²

Maha Kharvam=10¹³

Padmam=10¹⁴

Maha Padmam=10¹⁵

Kshuni=10¹⁶

Maha Kshuni=10¹⁷

Shankam=10¹⁸

Maha Shankam=10¹⁹

Kshiti=10²⁰

Maha Kshiti=10²¹

Kshobamu=10²²

Maha Kshobamu=10²³

Nidi=10²⁴

Maha Nidi=10²⁵

Paratam=10²⁶

Padhardam=10²⁷

Anantham=10²⁸

Sagaram=10²⁹

Avyayam=10³⁰

Amrutham=10³¹

Achintyam=10³²

Amayam=10³³

Bhoori=10³⁴

Maha Bhoori=10³⁵

Don’t get shocked by seeing these figures. This is the knowledge which was given by our great ancestors many years before the world had opened their eyes for knowledge. A French Scientist Pierre – Simon Laplace once said “The Importance of Ancient Indian Numbering System is that it gave the ability to add and subtract. This reason added weight to the fact that it was the most useful discovery by Mankind.”

But unfortunately many Indians are still unaware that the decimal numbering system was discovered in our country.

Dr.Thomas George authored the book “Akkangalude Charitam ” (History of Numbers) deals with the origin, science and magic of the decimal numbering system that originated in India.