Letters as Numerals in Pali

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Letters as Numerals in Pali

By L.D. Barnett

Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland

1901, pp.121-122

p. 121

November 24, 1900.

Dear Professor Rhys Davids,--Perhaps the learning
of your Journal's readers will enlighten me as to the
numeral system which is occasionally to be met with
in Pali MSS., and which, like the method described in
Buhler's Indische Palaeographie is based on the ganas
of the alphabet. I give some examples, premising that
the reduplication of consonants does not affect their
value, e.g. kkh being the same as simple kh.

gunaggaram = 2352. ratthakkhayam = 1222.
alappayam = 1170. bhanuvakkham = 2404.
gammakhakke = 1253.

p. 122

This gives us the following values:--k, t, p, y = 1;
kh, th, ph, r =2; g (and presumably d or b)=3; bh
(and gh, dh?) =4; m, n (and n?) = 5; l= 7; zero is
initially a, internally n.

This system obviously differs in a few points
from that recorded by Buhler, in which the series
k...n = 1...0, t...n = 1...o, p...m = 1...5, and
y...l = 1...9. The use of l for 7 is probably due to
the facts of the Pali alphabet, implying a gana
consisting of y, r, l, v, s, h, and l respectively.
The use of a = 0 is not so clear. -- I am, yours
faithfully,
L.D. Barnett
British Museum, London.