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Preface
or Jaina scriptures e. g. sky standing for zero, earth for 1, jewel for 3, sage for 7, self-control for 17 & so on. This sort of system was developed and perfected in India in the early century of the Christian era.
In the Vedas we find that numbers denote things. For instance, in the Rgveda ( VII, 103, 1 )'dvādaśan' signifies year, and in the Athai van Veda ( 1, 1, 1) seven stands for a group of 7 objects7 seas etc. Satapatha Brahmana (XIII, 3, 2, 1 ) and Taittiriya Brahmana ( I, 5, 1, 1) which are about 2000 B. C. old, furnish us with examples where a word denotes a whole number and not a fractional one as is the case with šapha= }, kusțha= 1 and kald= . Chandogya Upanişad, Vedanga-jyotisa ( 1200 B.C. ) and the Srautasütras of Kātyāyana and Läțyāyana sail in the same boat.
Agni-puraņa (chs. 122, 123, 131, 140, 141 & 328-335 ) seems to be the first work where word-numerals with place-value are met with. Pulisa-siddhanta (from which quotations are given by Bhațfotpala in his commentary on Brhat-samhita ) is practically the next work to use such a word-system.
Word-chronograms occur in inscriptions. Two of the oldest Indian inscriptions of this type are dated 813 A. 1), and 842 A. D. respectively.
Writers on Mathematics and Astronomy have used " wordchronograms” in their Sanskrit works in verse as far back as the fourth century A. D. Later on, other writers, too, have done so. So it is no wonder if we find word-chronograms in Jaina works written in Sanskrit, Prakrit & Gujarāti. Here words mostly represent values according to the popular-mythological conceptions of the Vaidika Hindus e. g. indra signifying 14. In some cases the Jaina conceptions are taken into account. For instance yakşa stands for 13 as there are 13 varieties of this demi-god and samyama ( self-control ) for 17.
At times we come across certain word-numerals which are assigned a particular value but the reason for doing so is not so very well known. So I may say a few words about them.