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Devanagari numerals

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Image
Devanagari numerals with their Western Arabic counterparts

The Devanagari numerals are the symbols used to write numbers in the Devanagari script, predominantly used for northern Indian languages. They are used to write decimal numbers, instead of the Western Arabic numerals.

Table

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In modern-era, languages like Hindi, Marathi and Nepali have adopted Devanagari as the standard script, before which they were respectively written using Kaithi, Modi and Newari scripts.

Modern
Devanagari
Western
Arabic
Words for the cardinal number
Sanskrit
(wordstem)
Hindi Marathi Nepali
०0शून्य (śūnya)शून्य[1] (śūnya)शून्य (śūnya)शून्य (śūnya) — colloq.सुन्ना[2] (sunnā)
१1एक (eka)एक (ek)एक (ek)एक (ek)
२2द्वि (dvi)दो (do)दोन (don)दुई (dui)
३3त्रि (tri)तीन (tīn)तीन (tīn)तिन (tīn)
४4चतुर् (catur)चार (cār)चार (cār)चार (cār)
५5पञ्च (pañca)पाँच (pāñc)पाच (pāch)पाँच (pāñc)
६6षष् (ṣaṣ)छह (chah)सहा (sahā)छ (chha)
७7सप्त (sapta)सात (sāt)सात (sāt)सात (sāt)
८8अष्ट (aṣṭa)आठ (āṭh)आठ (āṭh)आठ (āṭh)
९9नव (nava)नौ (nau)नऊ (naū)नौ (nau)

The word śūnya for zero was calqued into Arabic as صفر sifr, meaning 'nothing', which became the term "zero" in many European languages via Medieval Latin zephirum.[3] In Hindustani language, it was borrowed from Arabic (via Persian) as सिफ़र (sifar).

Variants

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Image
A comparison of Sanskrit and Eastern Arabic numerals

Devanagari digits shapes may vary depending on geographical area or epoch. Some of the variants are also seen in older Sanskrit literature.[4][5]

१ Image
Common
Image
Nepali
1
५ Image
"Bombay" Variant
Image
"Calcutta" Variant
5
८ Image
"Bombay" Variant
Image
"Calcutta" Variant
8
९ Image
Common
Image
Nepali Variant
9

In Nepali language ५, ८, ९ (5, 8, 9) - these numbers are slightly different from modern Devanagari numbers. The Nepali language uses the old Devanagari system for writing these numbers, like ५, ८, ९

See also

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References

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Notes
  1. ↑ "शून्य (Shoony) का तद्भव - Hindi Tutor". hinditutor.in.
  2. ↑ "सुन्ना". Wiktionary, the free dictionary. 28 February 2021.
  3. ↑ "zero - Origin and meaning of zero by Online Etymology Dictionary". www.etymonline.com.
  4. ↑ Devanagari for TEX version 2.17, page 22
  5. ↑ "Alternate digits in Devanagari". Scriptsource.org. Retrieved 13 September 2017.
Sources