Mathematics in Hindu scriptures - contd

Arithmetic: The sequence-wise description of the numbers can be found in the Yajurveda:

Savita prathameahannagni rdviteeye vayustriteeya Aadityenchaturthe chandramaah Panchamarituh shashthe marootah saptame brahaspatirashtame Mitro navame varuno dashamam indra ekaadashe Vishwedeva dwadashe —(Yajurveda 39-6)

What is special is that the numbers are given here from one to twelve in a sequence

From the aspect of counting, the largest number known to the ancient Greeks was myriad which is equal to 104 or 10,000 and the largest number known to the Romans was 10³, i.e. 1000. On the contrary, many kinds of counting were prevalent in India. These methods were independent. The methods described in the Vedic, Buddhist and Jain texts, have a similarity in the names of some of the numbers but there is a difference in the value of the numbers.

First: Next number multiple of 10: This means that the number that comes next is 10 times more. The second mantra in the 17th chapter of the Yajurveda Samhita refers to this, whose sequence is given—Ek, dash, shat, sahastra, ayut, niyut, prayut, arbud, nyarbud, samudra, madhya, ananta and parardh. In this way, Parardh measured 10¹² that is one thousand billion or one trillion (US).

Second: Next number multiple of 100: This means that the next number is 100 times more than the earlier number. In this context, we must refer to the conversation between mathematician Arjun and Bodhisatva in Lalit Vistar, the Buddhist text from the 1st century BC in which he asks what the number after 1 crore is? In reply, Bodhisatva describes the numbers after crore, which are multiples of 100.

Shat (One hundred) koti = ayut, niyut, kankar, vivar, kshomya, nivaah, utsang, bahul, naagbal, titilamb, vyavasthanapra-gyapti, hetusheel, karahu, hetvindriya, samaaptalambh, gananagati, nikhadh, mudraabal, sarvabal, vishagyagati, sarvagya, vibhutangama and tallakshana which meant that tallakshana means 10 raised to the power of 53. (i.e.1053)

Third: Next number multiple of ten million: The 51st and 52nd chapters of Katyayan’s Pali Grammar has reference to multiples of crores, i.e. the next number is a crore times (i.e.107 times) more than the earlier number.

In this centext, the Jain text of Anuyugodwar describes the numbers after koti as follows— Koti koti, pakoti, kotyapakoti, nahut, ninnahut, akkhobhini, bindu, abbnd, nirashbud, ahah, abab, atat, sogandhik, uppalkumud, pundareek, padum, kathaan, mahakathaan and asankhyeya. Asankhyeya measures 10140 that means 10 raised to power of 140.