Page:The Hindu-Arabic Numerals (1911).djvu/51

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LATER HINDU FORMS WITH A PLACE VALUE
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As an example of this system, the date "Śaka Saṃvat, 867" (A.D. 945 or 946), is given by "giri-raṣa-vasu," meaning " the mountains " (seven), "the flavors" (six), and the gods "Vasu" of which there were eight. In reading the date these are read from right to left.[1] The period of invention of this system is uncertain. The first trace seems to be in the Śrautasūtra of Kātyāyana and Lāṭyāyana.[2] It was certainly known to Varāha-Mihira (d. 587),[3] for he used it in the Bṛhat-Saṃhita.[4] It has also been asserted[5] that Āryabhaṭa (c. 500 A.D.) was familiar with this system, but there is nothing to prove the statement.[6] The earliest epigraphical examples of the system are found in the Bayang (Cambodia) inscriptions of 604 and 624 A.D.[7]

Mention should also be made, in this connection, of a curious system of alphabetic numerals that sprang up in southern India. In this we have the numerals represented by the letters as given in the following table:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
k kh g gh ṅ c ch j jh ñ
ṭ ṭh ḍ ḍh ṇ t th d dh n
p ph b bh m
y r l v ś ṣ s h l
  1. ↑ This date is given by Fleet, loc. cit., Vol. III, p. 73, as the earliest epigraphical instance of this usage in India proper.
  2. ↑ Weber, Indische Studien, Vol. VIII, p. 166 seq.
  3. ↑ Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. I (N.S.), p. 407.
  4. ↑ VIII, 20, 21.
  5. ↑ Th. H. Martin, Les signes numéraux…, Rome, 1864; Lassen, Indische Alterthumskunde, Vol. II, 2d ed., Leipzig and London, 1874, p. 1153.
  6. ↑ But see Burnell, loc. cit., and Thibaut, Astronomie, Astrologie und Mathematik, p. 71.
  7. ↑ A. Barth, "Inscriptions Sanscrites du Cambodge," in the Notices et extraits des Mss. de la Bibliothèque nationale, Vol. XXVII, Part I, pp. 1–180, 1885; see also numerous articles in Journal Asiatique, by Aymonier.
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