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33-Numbers in Ved

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33-Numbers in Ved

The numbers in Rig Ved, from 1 to 9, are Ek, Dwe, Tri, Chatur, Panch, Shat, Sapt, Asht, Nava
The names for 10 to 90 are given in 2.18.5-6
The intermediate numbers have appropriate names, 94 is expressed as 90 + 4; 19 is expressed as "1 less than 20".
The same pattern is seen in Roman numerals too - nothing for zero and till 4 you can increase the numbers, like 94, but when it comes to 19, it is expressed as "1 less than 20" (IXX).

--Rig Ved 3.9.9 has a number 3339, spelt as three thousand, three hundred and thirty-nine.
--Rig Ved has more than a 100 references to numbers.
--Ved was using lots of Numbers and even there is reference about 10 raised 54 times
--The Shukla Yajur Ved (17.2) mentions the numbers up to 10 raised to the power of 12 in steps of powers of 10, namely
Ayut (104),
Niyut (105),
Paayut (106),
Arbud (107),
Nyarbud (108),
Samudra (109),
Madhya (1010),
Ant (1011),
Paraardh (1012) - it is Brahmaa's half life span - 50 years, etc.
--A similar list is in Taittireeya Sanhitaa (Krishn Yajur Ved) 4.4.11 and 7.2.20.1; Maitreyanee Sanhitaa, 2.8.12; and Kathak Sanhitaa, 17.10 etc.
--The Atharv Ved (6.25.1-3 and 7.4.1) especially emphasize the common relationship between 1 and 10, 3 and 30, 5 and 50 and 9 and 90 and so on, clearly indicating that the people of the Vaidik age had a good grasp of the basics of Decimal System for positive integers.
--The number 432 (4 hundred and 32) million occurring frequently in Sanskrit words occurs in Atharv Ved in 8.3.21.
Shatam te Ayutam Hyaanan Dwai Trini Chatwari Kram (means Ayut is 10,000, and Shatam cha Ayutam is 1,000,000) The number is read in reverse order by the standard convention.

 

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Created by Sushma Gupta on 3/15/06
Contact:  sushmajee@yahoo.com
Updated on 06/05/13