570 Ancient Indian Numerals. [No. ? . 



one hundred, which proved to me that no subordinate system of 

 increasing the power of any fixed figure by the addition of subsi- 

 diary lines or marks existed in this grade of the general scheme of 

 numerical notation. It will be noticed, now that we have come to 

 alphabetical comparisons — how great a similitude its quaint outline 

 bears to the letter ^T n as so rendered by Prinsep in the Sanchi 

 inscription, PL XXV. Yol. VI. J. A. S. B. something of whose 

 semblance is still retained in the Bengali counterpart of that letter 



we find a striking want of variety in the outlines, and a marked absence of inge- 

 nuity in the expression of the distinctive forms, of the decimal ciphers, that so, 

 in like manner, the changes in the definition of the different hundreds may have 

 been in part effected by minor and subsidiary additions to a fixed (symbol, as is still 

 practised in the entire Tibetan numerical system. It will be seen that there is a 

 palpable variation in the form and numbers of the side spur strokes in different 

 e xamples of the figure ^, passing from the occasional entire omission of the mark 

 to the use of one or two of these lines, and in some instances (No. 6, PL XX., 

 Vol. VII., J. A. S. B.) the simple lower stroke is changed into a complete sub- 

 junctive curve, making in itself a second character, similar to the body of the old 

 alphabetical letter W N. But, on the other hand, it will not fail to be remarked 

 that there is much latitude discoverable in the expression of many of the unit 

 figures, whose complete identity of value there is but little reason to discredit, and 

 hence that it would be unsafe to assume a difference of power to be conveyed in 

 the one case, by what is possibly a mere flourish, which could not be similarly 

 claimed for a like modification in another." (J. R. A. S. XII. 35.) 



The Nasik inscriptions more fully illustrate the latitude permissible in these 

 additions to the fixed symbol, which however, in no case seem to affect its definite 

 value. For instance, the ordinary letter M which denotes hundreds is modified by 

 these linear adjuncts into % (II. 3) W (V. 3) and ^ (II. 3) apparently at the 

 caprice of the original engraver (for we can scarcely suppose the modern copyist to 

 have taken any such liberties with his materials). 



Again, the ^ which also in its normal form represents the power of hundreds, 

 is changed at one time, by a continuation of the second line of the triangle below 

 its base, into an impossible Sanskrit compound of E - *" — or rather into a very correct 



figure of the older form of the Phoenicia 11 "3 B. (V. 2) ; on other occasions by the 

 addition of a vertical head-line the numeral is converted into a "3" v. (VI. 5), while 



earlier in the same inscription, a further modification magnifies it into W. 



So also with the sign for thousands, a reversed P (the Phoenician "3"), which 



R 



after appearing frequently in all its simplicity of outline is subjected (in inscription 

 VI. line 22) to the supplementation of two forward strokes, such as are used tQ 

 indicate the letter ^T in conjunction. 



