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$ 35, A.)
INDIAN PALEOGRAPHY.
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The earliest epigraphic instance of the ase of the decimal notation occurs in the Gurjara inscription of the Cedi year 346, or A. D. 595, where the signs (plate IX, B, col. I) are identical with the numeral symbols of the country and of the period (compare the Valabhi column of plate IX, A). The same remark applies to the 2 in the date of the month of the Cicacole plate mentioned on page 78 above, in which document we find also the later circular cipher and [79] a decimal 8 in the shape of a cursive sign derived from pu. Another inscription of the 8th century, the Sāmāngad plates of Sakasamvat 675, or A. D. 754, offers only strongly modified cursive signs (plate IX, B, col. II.).
In the specimens (plate IX, B, cols. III-VIII, XIII) from inscriptions of the 9th and later centaries, when the use of the decimal figures is the rule, we have likewise only cursive signs, which in the 11th and 12th centuries compare cols. VII, VIII, and XIII) show local differences in the west, east and south. But all their figures have been derived either directly from the letter-numerals of the older system, or from letters with the same phonetic value. The last remark applies to the 9 of cols. III, V, VI ff., which is identical with the signs for 0 used in later inscriptions in the word om (compare, e.g., IA. 6, 194 ff., Nos. 3–6).
Among the specimens from MSS. (plate JX, B, cols. IX-XII), the decimal figures of the Bakhshali MS. show the ancient letter-numerals for 4 and 9.
The Tamil numerals, which greatly differ from the usual ones and preserve the old signs for 10, 100 and 1000, have been given by BORNELL, ESIP. plate 23 (compare id. page 68). Those from Kābul are contained in the table accompanying E. O. BAYLEY's paper, Numismatic Chronicle, 3rd Series, 2, 128 ff.
35. - Numeral notation by words and letters.
A. - The word-numerals. [80] In many manuals of astronomy, mathematics and metrics, as well as in the dates of inscriptions and of MSS., the namerals are expressed by the names of things, beings or ideas, which, naturally or in accordance with the teaching of the Sāstras, connote numbers. The earliest traces of this custom have been discovered by A. WEBER in the Srautasūtras of Kátyāyana and Latyāyana. A few examples are found ia the Vedic Jyotişa and in the arithmetic of the Bakhshāli MS. More numerous instances occur in Pingala's manual of metrics, and from about A. D. 500 we find, first in Varāhamihira's Pancasiddhāntikā, a system of this description, which, gradually becoming more and more perfect, extends to the cipher or naught, and to nearly all the numbers between 1 and 49. During this latter period any synonym may be used for the words expressing numbers, and in some cases the same word may be used for different numbers. If the words are compounds, they may be represented by their first or second part.
1 Compare facsimiles at El. 2, 19 ff.; and see FLEET in GI (CII. 3), 209, note 1. 2 The apparent difference in 6 is due to a fault of the impression, • Preparation of Plate IX, B, cols. III-XIII (for cols. I, II, see the text, above): all hand-drawn :
COL. III; from facsimiles of Rastrakūta inscriptions Col. VII; from facsimile of the Chaulakya oopperat Kaņhori, No. 15, 49 A, B.
plate, IA. 12, 202, Col. IV, from facsimile of the Raptrakuta oopper- Col. VIII, the 1, 8, 8, from the Gaya insoription, plate from Torkhede, EI. 3, 55.
IA, 10, 342; the 5 from C.MG. pl. 28, A, Col. V; the 8 and 6 from an impression of the Haddala copper-plate (IA, 12, 190); the 4, 7, 9, 0, from
Cola. IX, * ; HOERNLI'S Bakhshali figuros. facsimile of the Asni inscription, IA, 16, 174; the 5 and 8 Cole. XI, XII; from BENDALL'e table of numeral from facsimile of the Morbi oopper-plate, IA. 2, 257, in Catalogue of the Cambridge Sanskrit Buddhist M88.
COL, VI; from facsimilo of the Bavantvādi oopper- Col. XIII; from B.KSIP. pl. 28, Telaga and plate, IA. 12, 286.
Kanareno numerals, 11th century. •W.IS, 8, 166 1.
