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Numerals and Other Signs
Signs for Numerals
Like alphabets, the Indian numeral also reveals a history of gradual evolution. In ancient times, before the 10th century A.D. numeral notations were denoted in two ways - letter numerals and numerical figures of the decimal system. In letter numerals separate signs are used for the units, tens, hundreds and thousands. Other composite numbers are represented by the combination of units with tens, hundreds and thousands. This type of notation was employed exclusively up to the later part of the 6th century A.D. and thereafter sporadically survived alongside the decimal system till the 10th century A.D. Very useful researches on the letter-numerals have been done by E. Thomas, E. Clive Bayley, Bhau Daji, H.R. Kapadia, 4 Bhagawanlal Indraji, G. Bühler, G.S. Ojha,? Awadhesh Narain Singh, Sobhana Laxaman Gokhale, and recently Om Prakash Lal Srivastava 10
The modern system of using nine unit figures and zero for all purposes of notation and calculation, arranged in decimal order seems to be of a later period. To the best of our knowledge, the earliest epigraphic instance of the use of the decimal notation is the Gūrijara inscriptions from Sānkhedā of Chedi year 346 (A.D. 595). The object of the present chapter is not
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