The oldest stone inscription featuring a numeral is the Tamil-Brahmi cave inscription from Tondur
How were numerals written in ancient times in the Tamil country, the land of Srinivasa Ramanujan, ‘The Man Who Knew Infinity'?
Literary sources in Tamil mention numbers only in words.
However, we do have ancient literary references specifically mentioning eN (‘numeral') as distinguished from ezhuttu (‘letter of the alphabet,' for example, Tolkappiyam 655.4, Tirukkural 392).
But as palm leaf manuscripts decay with time and hardly last for more than 200 years, we have to turn to durable stone or pottery inscriptions to know what the ancient Tamil numerals looked like. We illustrate two of them here, one from each class (Figs. 1 & 2).
The oldest stone inscription featuring a numeral is the Tamil-Brahmi cave inscription from Tondur, near Gingee, in Villupuram district, assigned to about the 3rd century C.E. (Fig. 1). The numeral 3 engraved at the end of a short two-line inscription in the cave is represented by three horizontal parallel lines.
The inscription records that the village of Agalur gifted three stone beds in the cave chiselled by Mosi.
The gift was made to the Jaina monks resident in the cave. The village still exists with the same name Agalur, near Tondur, both of which still have sizeable Jaina populations. The numeral 3 has the same form as in contemporary Prakrit inscriptions in the Brahmi script in North India.
Pottery inscription
A well-preserved pottery inscription from Alagankulam near Rameswaram has only the numeral incised in fairly large size (Fig. 2). The inscription is dated to the 1st or 2nd century C.E.
The number is read 408, from right to left, following the ancient convention of reading the digits from the right (ankaanaam vaamato gatih). The first digit at right looking like the cross is the symbol for 4.
It is followed by the symbol for 100 (resembling the Brahmi letter sa) and the last symbol at left is 8, incised in reversed direction.
Interesting
As there is no accompanying text, we do not know the significance of the number. The find is still interesting for the absence of the place-value system. The convention of using symbols for 10, 100, and 1000 in expressing the higher numerals was current in Tamil Nadu until the advent of printing and the adoption of the international form of Indian numerals with place-value system.
The pottery inscription is also good evidence for widespread literacy, including numeracy, in the ancient Tamil country.
Keywords: History of Mathematics, mathematical inscriptions, Ramanujan, Srinivasa Ramanujan, Ramanujan 125
One should think twice before disagreeing with the authors, one of whom is the eminent and widely acclaimed Iravatham Mahadevan. Ever since humans appeared on earth there has been transportation--on two legs, rafts, pack animals etc. etc.; It was also fraught with great perils. Nevertheless hardy and adventurous souls fanned out of Africa and populated the four corners of this planet thousands and thousands of years ago. It is possible for literacy to be widespread (geographically) if writing has been invented or adopted and adapted. In the more or less egalitarian of the ancient Tamil land literacy was surely widespread socially also. All you need is a little leisure, motivation and a stick and sand; or a leaf and a thorn; or a wet pot and a bone. Please read Mahadevan to be convinced that sherds with inscriptions have been unearthed all over the ancient Tamil land from 1941 and deciphered. The potters were obviously literate. Everyone from king (chief) to menial surely used pots.
The Jains were also instrumental in uniting India apart from teaching arts
Tamils are always good at numbers 1.Kapila,who is praised as a Brahmin of spotless character by other Sangam poets gives the number of towns under Pari's rule as 300. He was a great man with statistics at his finger tips. 2.In another Purananuru verse (201)he praised Irungovel as the 49th in his generation taking back the Tamil history to 1500 BC. 3.Silappadikaram plays on number 18 saying that the war between Asuras and Devas lasted 18 years,war between the Pandavas and Kauravas lasted 18 days ,but the war between Cheran Chenguttuvan and Aryan king lasted only 18 Nazikas. 4.The Parthivasekarapura copper plats of Karunanthatakkan gives the Kali year 3967 (AD865)in number of days as 1449087. 5.Akananuru poems are arranged in a number sequence for Kurinji,Mullai,Marutham,Neithal and Palai. 6.I have given more details in my paper Numbers at Sangam Tamil Literature in 1995 World Tamil Conference. 7.I. Mahadevan's new information is a welcome addition to our knowledge on Tamil numbers.
Most interesting find, it is. It does us proud to learn about this find, on New Year'Eve.
Personally, I had always thought of our widespread literacy. It is refreshing to support from eminent authorities. One last word. Each one of us should exert oneself for guarding our Heritage and for spreading the knowledge.
Fascinating article, but I beg to disagree with the authors' final conclusion. Without mass-produced information from a printing press, and quick, reliable transportation, it is impossible to have widespread literacy. (What does widespread literacy mean, by the way - 100% literate or 20%?)
The inscription is dated to the 1st or 2nd century C.E. is meant to read "The inscription is dated to the 1st or 2nd century B.C.E? Otherwise the relavance is lost.
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