Vedic Number Representation

Vedic knowledge is in the form of slokas or poems in Sanskrit verse. A number was encoded using consonant groups of the Sanskrit alphabet, and vowels were provided as additional latitude to the author in poetic composition. The coding key is given as Kaadi nav, taadi nav, paadi panchak, yaadashtak ta ksha shunyam Translated as below ·

Varnmala

ka kha ga gha gna

cha chha ja jha inja

ta tha da dha na

pa pha ba bha ma

ya ra la va sha

sha sa ha chjha tra gna

• letter "ka" and the following eight letters

• letter "ta" and the following eight letters

• letter "pa" and the following four letters

• letter "ya" and the following seven letters, and

• letter "ksha" for zero.

In other words,

• ka, ta, pa, ya = 1

• kha, tha, pha, ra = 2

• ga, da, ba, la = 3

• gha, dha, bha, va = 4

• gna, na, ma, scha = 5

• cha, ta, sha = 6

• chha, tha, sa = 7

• ja, da, ha = 8

• jha, dha = 9

• ksha = 0

Thus pa pa is 11, ma ra is 52. Words kapa, tapa , papa, and yapa all mean the same that is 11.