Kapilan, the Brahmin poet
who contributed highest number of poems in the Sangam literature was good at
maths. He made a passing remark about numbers. He says that Pari’s Parambu
hills had 300 towns (Pura Nanuru verse 110). This is the first statistics we
get about Sangam period towns. If Pari’s Parambu Hills (a small area) had 300
towns, how many villages and towns Tamil Nadu would have had 2000 years ago! No
wonder India, at present, has over 600,000 villages and 4000 towns.
In another poem, Kapilan
gives a talk in bullet points like company executives. “Hey, Three Tamil kings,
Listen to me. If you want Pari’s Parambu hills, don’t attack him. Do this. He
gives three suggestions. In another verse (Puram 201) he talks about 49
generations of Irungovel, another Tamil chieftain like Pari. Kapilan was the
poet who gave 99 plants names at one go. He beat all the ancient botanist. Just
one poet gives us so many numbers and so much information.
The world came to know
about nuclear power and atom bomb only around1945. But the concept of atom bomb
was sung by Idaikkadar 1500 years ago. When she wanted to praise Tirukkural,
the Veda of the Tamils, what she said was this:
It is like cramping seven
seas in to a single mustard seed. The meaning of Kural is vast. But poet
Tiruvalluvar put seven seas in to one mustard seed was the message given by
Idaikkadar. Why should he sing about putting seven seas into one tiny seed?
Will the Tamil world understand such a simile without some knowledge of huge
power in tiny things?
The story did not stop
there. Actually Tamils knew more than what Idaikkadar said. Because the earlier
Upanishads praise god as smaller than the smallest particle, larger than the
largest (Anooar aneeyaam, mahator maheeyaam). They knew that if one tiny seed
is split into, energy equal to seven
seas will be generated.
Some readers may think
that I am interpreting it in un scientific way. But if you read the following ,
all their doubts will be cleared. An old Tamil poem says that one mustard seed
has 2,62,144 anu (anu=atom). Though their atom is very different from what we
read in Today’s Physics book about Atoms, my point is that they knew smallest
measurements which others did not at that time in the history
The verse goes as follows:
8 Anus= one Ther Tugal (
Chariot dust particle)
8 Ther Tugal= one cotton
thread
8 cotton thread = one hair
8 hair = one sand particle
8 sand particles= one
mustard seed
8 mustard seeds= one paddy
seed
8 paddies = one finger
length
12 fingers= I saan
2 saan= 1 muzam
4 muzam= 1 kol
500 kol= 1 kuuppidu
4 kuuppidu= 1 Katham
(Source: Senthamiz Volume
12, page 127)
When the first nuclear
device was exploded the scientist behind it Oppenheimer quoted a Bhagavd Gita
sloka about the Viswarupa darsanam of Lord Krishna (Please read my post A to Z
of Bhagavad Gita to get full details.)
Tirumular’s brilliant
calculation
Tirumular was one of the
18 Tamil Siddhars ( saints who have attained magical powers). He sings about
splitting a cow’s hair in to 10000 million hairs. He takes the readers step by
step. He asks one to take one hair from the tail of a cow. Then ask us to split
it in to 100. Then in to 1000……….. on and on 100X1000X100 000= 100 000 00
000.(Tirumanthiram 1974).
One may wonder whether
there was any practical use for such minute numbers. But these saints have seen
such things through their third eye or intuition. When the western world was
still struggling with their complicated Roman numerals Indians were far
advanced in mathematics. Look at the table below that existed 2500 years ago.
World Tamil Conference
Souvenir (1968) gives another interesting measurement:
How many grains are there
in one measure?
One measure contains
(measure is bigger than a litre)
1800 beans or
12,800 black peppers or
14,400 paddies or
14,800 green grams or
38,000 rice grains or
1,15,200 sesame seeds (gingili seeds).
Tamils must be a patient
race to count grains this way!
Tamils very often use a
word called “IMMI” in their day today conversation. Like English phrase not
even one iota, they used to say not even an Immi. This is an interesting word.
Sculptor V Ganapathy
explains Immi quoting a book called Manasaram. It is as follows:
8 anu=1 ther thugal
(Chariot dust particle)
8 ther thugal= 1 immi
8 immi= 1 sesame seed
(Ellu)
8 Ellu= 1 paddy
8 paddies= 1 finger length
Mr V Ganapathy also added
the book Manasaram says one inch= 190650 anus.
He says that different
books give slightly different measurements for the same word in the Silpa
Shastra( Science of Sculpting)
Another table giving the
lowest Tamil number Munthiri:
I/8 is Araikaal
1/16 = maakaani
1/32= arai veesam
1/64=kaal veesam
1/80=kaani
1/320=munthiri
The other numbers very
often attributed to Tamil are actually Sanskrit words. Moreover they have no
secondary evidence to support those big numbers. They were not used by the
Sangam poets. At least immi is used by Tamils till today like Iota ( Iota is a
Greek letter).
Some Tamil blogs give
incredible lowest and highest numbers without any proof. At a glance anyone can
find Sanskrit words in the list! They are not Tamil words.
( Sanskrit has words for
biggest numbers. But I couldn’t find words for smallest number like Tamil).
Numbers in Sanskrit:
From Wikipedia: A few large numbers used in India by about 5th century BCE (See Georges Ifrah: A Universal History of Numbers, pp 422–423):
From Wikipedia: A few large numbers used in India by about 5th century BCE (See Georges Ifrah: A Universal History of Numbers, pp 422–423):
§ ayuta (अयुता) —109
§ niyuta (नियुता) —1013
§ pakoti (पकोटि) —1014
§ vivara (विवारा) —1015
§ kshobhya (क्षोभ्या) —1017
§ vivaha (विवाहा) —1019
§ kotippakoti (कोटिपकोटी) —1021
§ bahula (बहूला) —1023
§ nagabala (नागाबाला) —1025
§ nahuta (नाहूटा) —1028
§ titlambha (तीतलम्भा) —1029
§ vyavasthanapajnapati (व्यवस्थानापज्नापति) —1031
§ hetuhila (हेतुहीला) —1033
§ ninnahuta (निन्नाहुता) —1035
§ hetvindriya (हेत्विन्द्रिया) —1037
§ samaptalambha (समाप्तलम्भा) —1039
§ gananagati (गनानागती) —1041
§ akkhobini (अक्खोबिनि) —1042
§ niravadya (निरावाद्य) —1043
§ mudrabala (मुद्राबाला) —1045
§ sarvabala (सर्वबाला) —1047
§ bindu (बिंदु or बिन्दु) —1049
§ sarvajna (सर्वज्ञ) —1051
§ vibhutangama (विभुतन्गमा) —1053
§ abbuda (अब्बुदा) —1056
§ nirabbuda (निर्बुद्धा) —1063
§ ahaha (अहाहा) —1070
§ ababa (अबाबा). —1077
§ atata (अटाटा) —1084
§ soganghika (सोगान्घीका) —1091
§ uppala (उप्पाला) —1098
§ kumuda (कुमुदा) —10105
§ pundarika (पुन्डरीका) —10112
§ paduma (पद्मा) —10119
§ kathana (कथाना) —10126
§ mahakathana (महाकथाना) —10133
§ dhvajagranishamani (ध्वजाग्रनिशमनी) —10421
§ lalitavistarautra (ललितातुलनातारासूत्र) —10200infinities
§ khrishnaraja (कृष्णराज) —10infinities
§ bhagavatapurana (भागवतपुराण) —1018000infinities
§ avatamsakasutra (अवताम्सकासुत्रा) —1030000infinities
§ mahadeva (महादेव) —1050000infinities
Tamil Numerals
1 =௧ ,2 =௨ ,3=௩ ,4 =௪ ,5=௫ ,6=௬ ,7 =௭ ,8 =௮ ,9=௯ ,10=௰ ,100=௱ ,1000=௲
