Ancient Indian Numerals 5.1 Do You Know 5.2 Timeline

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Ancient Indian Numerals 5.1 Do You Know 5.2 Timeline Ancient Indian Numerals 5.1 Do you know Description Image Source The Brahmi numerical system of notation with twenty symbols was first of all used in rd Rock Edicts of Asoka. the rock edicts of Asoka in the 3 century BCE. The decimal system of notation with nine unit figures and a zero was used in India as early as the 6th century CE. The Indian astronomers and mathematicians are given the credit of inventing this system sometime in the 5th-6th Hindu astronomical texts and century CE. Later on it was popularized in inscriptions of different ruling the royal courts for writing inscriptions and dynasties. by merchants and common people for counting. The system was borrowed by the Arabs and from the Arabs it was transmitted to Europe. The decimal system was used in the epigraphs of Cambodia and Indonesia in the 7th century CE. The dates are mentioned as Saka 605 (683 CE), Saka 606 (684 CE) and Inscriptions of South-east Asia. Saka 608 (686 CE). The use of the Saka era and the decimal place value makes it fairly apparent that the system originated in India and transmitted to other parts of the world. 5.2 Timeline Timelines Image Description Earliest occurrence of Brahmi and Kharosthi numerals in 3rd century BCE the rock edicts of Asoka. The Brahmi numerical symbols were used in the epigraphs of many ruling dynasties of India like the 1st century BCE Satavahanas, the Saka-Ksatrapas and the Kushanas. In to 3rd century CE the coins of the Ksatrapas we also come across the use of the symbols. 4th-6th century The numerical symbols are also found in records of the CE Guptas and their contemporaries. The decimal system of notation was first used in the 6th century CE astronomical works of Aryabhatta, Varahamihira and Brahmagupta. Towards the end of the century it system was used in the Mankani plates of Taralasvami dated in Kalacuri era 346 or 594-95 CE. This was a phase of transition from the numerical to the decimal system of notation. The process is apparent 6th-9th century fromn the records of the Eastern Gangas of Kalinga. The CE earliest Ganga grant where the decimal system was perfectly used is the Siddhantam grant of Devendravarman dated in Ganga era 195 or 693 CE. The decimal system was used perfectly in some of the 7th century CE inscriptions of Cambodia and Indonesia. The earliest being dated in Saka 605 or 683 CE. Complete displacement of the numerical system by the 10th century CE decimal system notation in India. The chronogrammatic system of notation which was occasionally found in the works of the Hindu 7th-8th century astronomers was found used in the epigraphic records CE India and south-east Asia. But from the 11 century onwards the system was popularly used in dating the inscriptions. 11th -14th century The Katapayadi system of numeration with the use of CE consonants was prevalent in south India. 5.3 Glossary Staring Related Term Definition Character Term B Brahmi An ancient Indian script C Chronogram Words of Sanskrit language indicating certain numbers It is a place value system that uses one to nine figures D Decimal system and a zero. K Katapayadi Expressing numbers with particular letters An ancient Indian script used in north west part of Kharosthi early India It is a non place value system where numbers are Numerical N expressed by twenty symbols. In this system zero is system absent. An ancient language belonging to the Indo – European P Prakrit family of languages 5.4 Web links Web links https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmi_numerals http://mathomathis.blogspot.in/2010/10/evolution-of-numerals-brahmi-numerals.html http://www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/HistTopics/Indian_numerals.html https://mysteriesexplored.wordpress.com/2011/08/23/india-%E2%80%93-world-guru-of- mathematics-part-%E2%80%93-4/ 5.5 Bibliography Bibliography Acharya, S.K. , Numerals in Orissan Inscriptions, Simla, 2002. Buhler, G., Indian Palaeography, reprint, Calcutta, 1959. Burnell, A.C., Elements of South Indian Inscriptions, reprint, Delhi, 1968. Gokhale, S., Indian Numerals, Poona, 1966. Ojha, G.H., Bharatiya Prachina Lipimala (Hindi), reprint, New Delhi, 1971. Ramesh, K.V., Indian Epigraphy, vol. I, Delhi, 1984. Sircar, D.C., Indian Epigraphy, New Delhi, 1965. Salomon, R., Indian Epigraphy, New Delhi, 1998. .
Recommended publications
  • On the Origin of the Indian Brahma Alphabet
    - ON THE <)|{I<; IN <>F TIIK INDIAN BRAHMA ALPHABET GEORG BtfHLKi; SECOND REVISED EDITION OF INDIAN STUDIES, NO III. TOGETHER WITH TWO APPENDICES ON THE OKU; IN OF THE KHAROSTHI ALPHABET AND OF THK SO-CALLED LETTER-NUMERALS OF THE BRAHMI. WITH TIIKKK PLATES. STRASSBUKi-. K A K 1. I. 1 1M I: \ I I; 1898. I'lintccl liy Adolf Ilcil/.haiisi'ii, Vicniiii. Preface to the Second Edition. .As the few separate copies of the Indian Studies No. Ill, struck off in 1895, were sold very soon and rather numerous requests for additional ones were addressed both to me and to the bookseller of the Imperial Academy, Messrs. Carl Gerold's Sohn, I asked the Academy for permission to issue a second edition, which Mr. Karl J. Trlibner had consented to publish. My petition was readily granted. In addition Messrs, von Holder, the publishers of the Wiener Zeitschrift fur die Kunde des Morgenlandes, kindly allowed me to reprint my article on the origin of the Kharosthi, which had appeared in vol. IX of that Journal and is now given in Appendix I. To these two sections I have added, in Appendix II, a brief review of the arguments for Dr. Burnell's hypothesis, which derives the so-called letter- numerals or numerical symbols of the Brahma alphabet from the ancient Egyptian numeral signs, together with a third com- parative table, in order to include in this volume all those points, which require fuller discussion, and in order to make it a serviceable companion to the palaeography of the Grund- riss.
    [Show full text]
  • Roman Numerals
    History of Numbers 1c. I can distinguish between an additive and positional system, and convert between Roman and Hindu-Arabic numbers. Roman Numerals The numeric system represented by Roman numerals originated in ancient Rome (753 BC–476 AD) and remained the usual way of writing numbers throughout Europe well into the Late Middle Ages. By the 11th century, the more efJicient Hindu–Arabic numerals had been introduced into Europe by way of Arab traders. Roman numerals, however, remained in commo use well into the 14th and 15th centuries, even in accounting and other business records (where the actual calculations would have been made using an abacus). Roman numerals are still used today, in certain contexts. See: Modern Uses of Roman Numerals Numbers in this system are represented by combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet. Roman numerals, as used today, are based on seven symbols: The numbers 1 to 10 are expressed in Roman numerals as: I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X. This an additive system. Numbers are formed by combining symbols and adding together their values. For example, III is three (three ones) and XIII is thirteen (a ten plus three ones). Because each symbol (I, V, X ...) has a Jixed value rather than representing multiples of ten, one hundred and so on (according to the numeral's position) there is no need for “place holding” zeros, as in numbers like 207 or 1066. Using Roman numerals, those numbers are written as CCVII (two hundreds, plus a ive and two ones) and MLXVI (a thousand plus a ifty plus a ten, a ive and a one).
    [Show full text]
  • The Personal Name Here Is Again Obscure. At
    342 THE FIRST ARAMAIC INSCRIPTION FROM INDIA 1. 10 : " his conduct " ? 1. 11 : " and also his sons." 1. 12 : the personal name here is again obscure. At the end of the line are traces of the right-hand side of a letter, which might be samekh or beth; if we accept the former, it is possible to vocalize as Pavira-ram, i.e. Pavira-rdja, corresponding to the Sanskrit Pravira- rdja. The name Pravira is well known in epos, and might well be borne by a real man ; and the change of a sonant to a surd consonant, such as that of j to «, is quite common in the North-West dialects. L. D. BARNETT. THE FIRST ARAMAIC INSCRIPTION FROM INDIA I must thank Mr. F. W. Thomas for his great kindness in sending me the photograph taken by Sir J. H. Marshall, and also Dr. Barnett for letting me see his tracing and transliteration. The facsimile is made from the photo- graph, which is as good as it can be. Unfortunately, on the original, the letters are as white as the rest of the marble, and it was necessary to darken them in order to obtain a photograph. This process inti'oduces an element of uncertainty, since in some cases part of a line may have escaped, and in others an accidental scratch may appear as part of a letter. Hence the following passages are more or less doubtful: line 4, 3PI; 1. 6, Tpfl; 1. 8, "123 and y\; 1. 9, the seventh and ninth letters; 1. 10, ID; 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Ancient Indian Mathematical Evolution Since Counting
    Journal of Statistics and Mathematical Engineering e-ISSN: 2581-7647 Volume 5 Issue 3 Ancient Indian Mathematical Evolution since Counting 1 2 Sankar Prasad Mukherjee , Sandip Ghanta* 1Research Guide, 2Research Scholar 1,2Department of Mathematics, Seacom Skills University, Kolkata, West Bengal, India Email: *[email protected] DOI: Abstract This paper is an endeavor how chronologically since inception and into growth of mathematics occurred in Ancient India with an effort of counting to establish the numeral system through different ages, i.e., Rigveda, Yajurvada, Buddhist, Indo-Bactrian, Bramhi, Gupta and Devanagari Periods. Ancient India’s such contribution was of immense value helped to accelerate the progress of Mathematical development up to modern age as we see today. Keywords: Brahmi numerals, centesimal scale, devanagari, rigveda, kharosthi numerals, yajurveda INTRODUCTION main striking feature being counting and This research paper is an endeavor to evolution of numeral system thereby. synchronize all the historical research with essence of pre-historic and post-historic Mathematical Evolution in Vedic Period respectively interwoven into a texture of Decimal Number System in the Rigveda evolution process of Mathematics. The first Numbers are represented in decimal system form of writing human race was not (i.e., base 10) in the Rigveda, in all other literature but Mathematics. Arithmetic Vedic treatises, and in all subsequent Indian what is today was felt as an essential need texts. No other base occurs in ancient for day to day necessity of human race. In Indian texts, except a few instances of base various countries at various point of time, 100 (or higher powers of 10).
    [Show full text]
  • 16-Sanskrit-In-JAPAN.Pdf
    A rich literary treasure of Sanskrit literature consisting of dharanis, tantras, sutras and other texts has been kept in Japan for nearly 1400 years. Entry of Sanskrit Buddhist scriptures into Japan was their identification with the central axis of human advance. Buddhism opened up unfathomed spheres of thought as soon as it reached Japan officially in AD 552. Prince Shotoku Taishi himself wrote commentaries and lectured on Saddharmapundarika-sutra, Srimala- devi-simhanada-sutra and Vimala-kirt-nirdesa-sutra. They can be heard in the daily recitation of the Japanese up to the day. Palmleaf manuscripts kept at different temples since olden times comprise of texts which carry immeasurable importance from the viewpoint of Sanskrit philology although some of them are incomplete Sanskrit manuscripts crossed the boundaries of India along with the expansion of Buddhist philosophy, art and thought and reached Japan via Central Asia and China. Thousands of Sanskrit texts were translated into Khotanese, Tokharian, Uigur and Sogdian in Central Asia, on their way to China. With destruction of monastic libraries, most of the Sanskrit literature perished leaving behind a large number of fragments which are discovered by the great explorers who went from Germany, Russia, British India, Sweden and Japan. These excavations have uncovered vast quantities of manuscripts in Sanskrit. Only those manuscripts and texts have survived which were taken to Nepal and Tibet or other parts of Asia. Their translations into Tibetan, Chinese and Mongolian fill the gap, but partly. A number of ancient Sanskrit manuscripts are strewn in the monasteries nestling among high mountains and waterless deserts.
    [Show full text]
  • Crowdsourcing
    CROWDSOURCING The establishment of the ZerOrigIndia Foundation is predicated on a single premise, namely, that our decades-long studies indicate that there are sound reasons to assume that facilitating further independent scientific research into the origin of the zero digit as numeral may lead to theoretical insights and practical innovations equal to or perhaps even exceeding the revolutionary progress to which the historic emergence of the zero digit in India somewhere between 200 BCE and 500 CE has led across the planet, in the fields of mathematics, science and technology since its first emergence. No one to date can doubt the astounding utility of the tenth and last digit to complete the decimal system, yet the origin of the zero digit is shrouded in mystery to this day. It is high time, therefore, that a systematic and concerted effort is undertaken by a multidisciplinary team of experts to unearth any extant evidence bearing on the origin of the zero digit in India. The ZerOrigIndia Foundation is intended to serve as instrument to collect the requisite funds to finance said independent scientific research in a timely and effective manner. Research Academics and researchers worldwide are invited to join our efforts to unearth any extant evidence of the zero digit in India. The ZerOrigIndia Foundation will facilitate the research in various ways, chief among which is to engage in fundraising to finance projects related to our objective. Academics and researchers associated with reputed institutions of higher learning are invited to monitor progress reported by ZerOrigIndia Foundation, make suggestions and/or propose their own research projects to achieve the avowed aim.
    [Show full text]
  • A STUDY of WRITING Oi.Uchicago.Edu Oi.Uchicago.Edu /MAAM^MA
    oi.uchicago.edu A STUDY OF WRITING oi.uchicago.edu oi.uchicago.edu /MAAM^MA. A STUDY OF "*?• ,fii WRITING REVISED EDITION I. J. GELB Phoenix Books THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS oi.uchicago.edu This book is also available in a clothbound edition from THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS TO THE MOKSTADS THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, CHICAGO & LONDON The University of Toronto Press, Toronto 5, Canada Copyright 1952 in the International Copyright Union. All rights reserved. Published 1952. Second Edition 1963. First Phoenix Impression 1963. Printed in the United States of America oi.uchicago.edu PREFACE HE book contains twelve chapters, but it can be broken up structurally into five parts. First, the place of writing among the various systems of human inter­ communication is discussed. This is followed by four Tchapters devoted to the descriptive and comparative treatment of the various types of writing in the world. The sixth chapter deals with the evolution of writing from the earliest stages of picture writing to a full alphabet. The next four chapters deal with general problems, such as the future of writing and the relationship of writing to speech, art, and religion. Of the two final chapters, one contains the first attempt to establish a full terminology of writing, the other an extensive bibliography. The aim of this study is to lay a foundation for a new science of writing which might be called grammatology. While the general histories of writing treat individual writings mainly from a descriptive-historical point of view, the new science attempts to establish general principles governing the use and evolution of writing on a comparative-typological basis.
    [Show full text]
  • Numerical Notation: a Comparative History
    This page intentionally left blank Numerical Notation Th is book is a cross-cultural reference volume of all attested numerical notation systems (graphic, nonphonetic systems for representing numbers), encompassing more than 100 such systems used over the past 5,500 years. Using a typology that defi es progressive, unilinear evolutionary models of change, Stephen Chrisomalis identifi es fi ve basic types of numerical notation systems, using a cultural phylo- genetic framework to show relationships between systems and to create a general theory of change in numerical systems. Numerical notation systems are prima- rily representational systems, not computational technologies. Cognitive factors that help explain how numerical systems change relate to general principles, such as conciseness and avoidance of ambiguity, which also apply to writing systems. Th e transformation and replacement of numerical notation systems relate to spe- cifi c social, economic, and technological changes, such as the development of the printing press and the expansion of the global world-system. Stephen Chrisomalis is an assistant professor of anthropology at Wayne State Uni- versity in Detroit, Michigan. He completed his Ph.D. at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, where he studied under the late Bruce Trigger. Chrisomalis’s work has appeared in journals including Antiquity, Cambridge Archaeological Jour- nal, and Cross-Cultural Research. He is the editor of the Stop: Toutes Directions project and the author of the academic weblog Glossographia. Numerical Notation A Comparative History Stephen Chrisomalis Wayne State University CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi, Dubai, Tokyo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521878180 © Stephen Chrisomalis 2010 This publication is in copyright.
    [Show full text]
  • The Slow Deaths of Writing
    News Focus A diverse group of scholars ponders not just why scripts vanish, but why they sometimes survive so long The Slow Deaths of Writing OXFORD,U.K.—The biblical God punished ing Egyptian hieroglyphics, Mayan glyphs, the Sumerian language of Mesopotamia. humanity for its arrogance by creating in- and Sumerian cuneiform, plus some less tra- More than 3000 years later in 75 C.E., a numerable languages—nearly 7000 at lat- ditional recording systems (see sidebar, Babylonian scribe in a crumbling temple est count. Writing systems, however, es- p. 32), in order to discern larger patterns in completed an astronomical tablet written in caped the curse. During the 5 millennia the scripts’ last gasps. “Their decline is as wedge-shaped symbols impressed in wet since writing first emerged on the same worthy of investigation as their origin,” says clay with a reed stylus. This work, the last Mesopotamian plain as the legendary Tower Oxford Egyptologist John Baines. He and dated example of cuneiform, was completed of Babel, fewer than 100 major scripts his colleagues believe that the death of in the same way as the earliest known have appeared. But once born, they can be scripts can provide new insight into cultural tablets. Scholars have long marveled that surprisingly durable. A handful of re- collapse and the relationship between a script this awkward and difficult system, which re- searchers are now taking a closer look at and its culture. But they also differ in how far quired years of training, survived for so long how scripts vanish to glean insight into to go in comparing script disappearance.
    [Show full text]
  • Early Chinese and Middle-Eastern Objects from Archeological Sites in Thailand Reflecting Cultural Exchange Tarapong Srisuchat
    Early Chinese and Middle-Eastern objects from archeological sites in Thailand reflecting cultural exchange Tarapong Srisuchat Thailand is located on the Southeast Asian mainland with its southern and eastern parts adjoining the Andaman and South China seas. This country is a land bridge between the mainland to the north and the archipelagos to the south. Evidence exists reflecting cultural interaction, migration and the settlement of various ethnic groups from time to time. According to archeological evidence, early settlement in the country can be dated back from the prehistoric period, 40,000 B.P. e.g.. The cave site Tham Rong Rian in Krabi in the South (Anderson, 1986). Later on at a well-known Bronze Age site, Ban Chiang in the Northeast, which is dated 3,000 B.P. a civilized community developed, having a social standard close to that of an early historical state (Charoenwongsa, 1987). A real historical state in which the inhabitants adopted a foreign script and religious concepts was built up around the 1st century B.C.; Indians are considered to be the first foreigners to have made contact with the local people and to have brought to them the attributes of what we consider the historic world. Legends and historical records indicate that Indians came to Thailand for two main purposes, commerce and the dissemination of their faiths, Buddhism and Hinduism; other navigators such as the Chinese and the Middle Easterners made contact with Thailand later. While the early interaction between these nations by the sea-route is indisputable, contact with the land route should be considered as well.
    [Show full text]
  • Prof. P. Bhaskar Reddy Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati
    Component-I (A) – Personal details: Prof. P. Bhaskar Reddy Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati. Prof. P. Bhaskar Reddy Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati. & Dr. K. Muniratnam Director i/c, Epigraphy, ASI, Mysore Dr. Sayantani Pal Dept. of AIHC, University of Calcutta. Prof. P. Bhaskar Reddy Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati. Component-I (B) – Description of module: Subject Name Indian Culture Paper Name Indian Epigraphy Module Name/Title Kharosthi Script Module Id IC / IEP / 15 Pre requisites Kharosthi Script – Characteristics – Origin – Objectives Different Theories – Distribution and its End Keywords E-text (Quadrant-I) : 1. Introduction Kharosthi was one of the major scripts of the Indian subcontinent in the early period. In the list of 64 scripts occurring in the Lalitavistara (3rd century CE), a text in Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, Kharosthi comes second after Brahmi. Thus both of them were considered to be two major scripts of the Indian subcontinent. Both Kharosthi and Brahmi are first encountered in the edicts of Asoka in the 3rd century BCE. 2. Discovery of the script and its Decipherment The script was first discovered on one side of a large number of coins bearing Greek legends on the other side from the north western part of the Indian subcontinent in the first quarter of the 19th century. Later in 1830 to 1834 two full inscriptions of the time of Kanishka bearing the same script were found at Manikiyala in Pakistan. After this discovery James Prinsep named the script as ‘Bactrian Pehelevi’ since it occurred on a number of so called ‘Bactrian’ coins. To James Prinsep the characters first looked similar to Pahlavi (Semitic) characters.
    [Show full text]
  • Some Interesting Facts, Myths and History of Mathematics
    International Journal of Mathematics and Statistics Invention (IJMSI) E-ISSN: 2321 – 4767 P-ISSN: 2321 - 4759 www.ijmsi.org Volume 4 Issue 6 || August. 2016 || PP-54-68 Some Interesting Facts, Myths and History of Mathematics Singh Prashant1 1(Department of Computer Science, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University) ABSTRACT : This paper deals with primary concepts and fallacies of mathematics which many a times students and even teachers ignore. Also this paper comprises of history of mathematical symbols, notations and methods of calculating time. I have also included some ancient techniques of solving mathematical real time problems. This paper is a confluence of various traditional mathematical techniques and their implementation in modern mathematics. I. INTRODUCTION I have heard my father saying that ―Mathematics is the only genuine subject as it does not change with boundary of countries‖. It is lucrative just because of its simplicity. Galileo once said, ―Mathematics is the language with which God wrote the Universe.‖ He was precise in calling mathematics a language, because like any dialect, mathematics has its own rubrics, formulas, and nuances. In precise, the symbols used in mathematics are quite unique to its field and are profoundly engrained in history. The following will give an ephemeral history of some of the greatest well-known symbols employed by mathematics. Categorized by discipline within the subject, each section has its own interesting subculture surrounding it. Arithmetic is the most rudimentary part of mathematics and covers addition, subtraction, multiplication, and the division of numbers. One category of numbers are the integers, -n,…-3,-2,-1,0,1,2,3,…n , where we say that n is in .The capital letter Z is written to represent integers and comes from the German word, Zahlen, meaning numbers.
    [Show full text]