Indian Antiquary Vol 33

SR No.: 032525
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 514
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 17 MB

Page 489

$ 34, A.]
INDIAN PALEOGRAPHY.
77
and that, with the exception of the cross-shaped 4, they have been introduced together with the Aramaic letters. According to [74] EJTING's table of the ancient Aramaic namerals, 1 to 10 are marked, as in the Asoka edicts, by vertical strokes, which however, contrary to the Indian practice, are divided into groups of three. The Kharoşthi 10 comes close to that of the Teima inscription, and the 20 resembles the sign of the Satrap coins, 3, which is also found in the papyrus Blacas (5th century B. C.), and somewhat modified in the papyrus Vaticanus. Both the Aramaeans and the Phoenicians ased the signs for 10 and 20 in the same manner as the Hindus, in order to express 30, 40, and so forth.
For the Kharosthi 100, EOTina's table offers no corresponding Aramaic sign, and that given in his edition of the Saqqārah inscriptions is, as he informs me, not certain. Hence, there remain only the Phoenician symbols lo, Þ, which are suitable for comparison. But the close relationship of Phoenician and Aramaic writing makes it not improbable that the latter, too, possessed in earlier times a 100, standing upright. The Kharoşthi practice of prefixing the signs for 1 and 2 to the 100 is found in all the Semitic systems of numeral notation.
The inclined cross, used to express the 4 in the later Kharoşthi inscriptions, is found only in Nabataean inscriptions incised after the beginning of our era, and is used there.only rarely for the expression of the higher units. The late occurrence of the sign both in Indian and in Semitic inscriptions makes it probable that both the Hindus and the Semites independently invented this cursive combination of the original foar strokes.
34. - The numerals of the Brāhmi; Plate IX.
A. The ancient letter-numerals. In the Brāhmi inscriptions aud coin-legends we find a peculiar system of nnmeral notation. the explanation of which is chiefly due to J. STEVENSON, E. THOMAS, A. CUNNINGHAM, BHAU DĀJI and BHAGVĀNLĀL INDRAJI.5 Up to the year A. D. 594-95 it is used exclusively, and later together with the decimal system. It appears also exclusively in the Bower MS. and in the other MSS. from Kashgar, as well as together with the decimal system, - chiefly in the pagination, in the old MSS. of the Jainas of Western India and of the Bauddhas of Nepal as late as the 16th century. And the Malayalam MSS. have preserved it to the present day.
In this system, 1 to 3 are expressed by horizontal strokes or cursive combinations of sach; 4 to 9, 10 to 90, 100, and 1000, each by a separate sign (usually a Mātrkā or a ligature); the intermediate and the higher numbers by groups or ligatures of the fundamental signs. In
Nabatäische Insobriften, 96 f.
? Corp. Inscr. Sem., P. Aram. 145 A (pointed out by EUTING). - Palaeographioal Society, Or. Ser., plate 63.
• Compare BHAGVANLAL, IA. 6, 42 ff., B.ESIP. 59 ft., and pl. 23; E. C. BAYLEY, Ou the Genealogy of the modern Nuinerals, J.RAS, N.S., 14, 335 ff. ; 15,1 ff.
J.BBRAS, 5, 35, and pl. 18: P.IA, 2, 80 ff.; C.ASR, 1, XLII, and J.ASB. 33, 38; J.BBRAS. 8, 225 ff. ; the results of the last article belong chiefly to BRAGVANLAL INDEĀJI, though his name is not mentioned.
.. Compare below, $ 84, B. The latest epigraphic date in letter-numerals is probably tho Nevar year 259 in BENDALL's Journey in Nepal, 81, No. 6; compare also FLEET, GI (CII. 3), 209, note 1.
T See HOERNLE, "The Bower MS. ;" WZKM. 7, 280 ff. The Bower MS. occasionally has the decimal 3.
* Compare BHAGVANLAL'S table, IA. 6, 42 f.; KIELHORN, Report on the Search for Sanskrit MSS., 1880-81, VIII. ff. ; PATERSON, First Report, 57 f., and Third Report, App. I, passim; LEUMANN, Silahka's Commentary on the Visepävakyaka (especially table 35) : COWELL and EGGELING, Cat. Sanskrit Buddhist MSS., 52 (J.RAS. 1875); BENDALL, Cat. Cambridge Sanskrit Buddhist MSS.. LII ff., and table of numerals, In BENDALL's Nos. 1049 and 1161, the letter numerals are also used for dates. The latest date in letter-numerals from Nepal (BENDALL's table of . numerale) is A.D. 1583. Letterenumerals are usually only found in Jaina palm-leaf MSS. up to about 4, D. 1950; but the Berlin paper MS. No. 1709 (W BER, Verzeichniss d. Skt. und Prak. Hdoohrft., 2, 1, 268 ; compare D.WA, 37, 250) shows some traces of them.
BENDALL, J.RAS. 1896, 789 ff.