The
Indians had a passion for large numbers. For example, in texts belonging to the
Vedic literature, we find individual
Sanskrit names for
each of the powers of 10 up to a trillion and even 1062. (Even today, the words '
lakh' and '
crore', referring to 100,000 and 10,000,000, respectively, are in common use among English-speaking Indians.) One of these
Vedic texts, the
Yajur Veda, even discusses the concept of numeric
infinity (
purna "fullness"), stating that if you subtract
purna from
purna, you are still left with
purna.
The
Lalitavistara Sutra (a
Mahayana Buddhist work) recounts a contest including writing, arithmetic, wrestling and archery, in which the
Buddha was pitted against the great mathematician Arjuna and showed off his numerical skills by citing the names of the powers of ten up to 1 'tallakshana', which equals 10^53, but then going on to explain that this is just one of a series of counting systems that can be expanded geometrically. The last number at which he arrived after going through nine successive counting systems was 10^421, that is, a 1 followed by 421 zeros.
There is also an analogous system of
Sanskrit terms for fractional numbers, capable of dealing with both very large and very small numbers.
Larger number in Buddhism works up to nirabhilapya nirabhilapya parivarta(Bukeshuo bukeshuo zhuan 不可說不可說轉) {\displaystyle 10^{7\times 2^{122}}}
or 10^37218383881977644441306597687849648128, which appeared as
Bodhisattva's maths in the
Avataṃsaka Sūtra.,
[1][2] though chapter 30 (the Asamkyeyas) in Thomas Cleary's translation of it we find the definition of the number "untold" as exactly 10^10*2122, expanded in the 2nd verses to 104*5*2121 and continuing a similar expansion indeterminately.
A few large numbers used in India by about 5th century BC (
See Georges Ifrah: A Universal History of Numbers, pp 422–423):
- lakṣá (लक्ष) —10^5
- kōṭi (कोटि) —10^7
- ayuta (अयुत) —10^9
- niyuta (नियुत) —10^13
- pakoti (पकोटि) —10^14
- vivara (विवारा) —10^15
- kshobhya (क्षोभ्या) —10^17
- vivaha (विवाहा) —10^19
- kotippakoti (कोटिपकोटी) —10^21
- bahula (बहुल) —10^23
- nagabala (नागाबाला) —10^25
- nahuta (नाहूटा) —10^28
- titlambha (तीतलम्भा) —10^29
- vyavasthanapajnapati (व्यवस्थानापज्नापति) —10^31
- hetuhila (हेतुहीला) —10^33
- ninnahuta (निन्नाहुता) —10^35
- hetvindriya (हेत्विन्द्रिय) —10^37
- samaptalambha (समाप्तलम्भ) —10^39
- gananagati (गनानागती) —10^41
- akkhobini (अक्खोबिनि) —10^42
- niravadya (निरावाद्य) —10^43
- mudrabala (मुद्राबाला) —10^45
- sarvabala (सर्वबाला) —10^47
- bindu (बिंदु or बिन्दु) —10^49
- sarvajna (सर्वज्ञ) —10^51
- vibhutangama (विभुतन्गमा) —10^53
- abbuda (अब्बुद) —10^56
- nirabbuda (निर्बुद्ध) —10^63
- ahaha (अहाहा) —10^70
- ababa (अबाबा). —10^77
- atata (अटाटा) —10^84
- soganghika (सोगान्घीक) —10^91
- uppala (उप्पल) —10^98
- kumuda (कुमुद) —10^105
- pundarika (पुन्डरीक) —10^112
- paduma (पद्म) —10^119
- kathana (कथन) —10^126
- mahakathana (महाकथन) —10^133
- asaṃkhyeya (असंख्येय) —10^140
- dhvajagranishamani (ध्वजाग्रनिशमनी) —10^421
- bodhisattva (बोधिसत्व or बोधिसत्त) —10^37218383881977644441306597687849648128
- lalitavistarautra (ललितातुलनातारासूत्र) —10^200infinities
- matsya (मत्स्य) —10^600infinities
- kurma (कूर्म) —10^2000infinities
- varaha (वराह) —10^3600infinities
- narasimha (नरसिम्हा) —10^4800infinities
- vamana (वामन) —10^5800infinities
- parashurama (परशुराम) —10^6000infinities
- rama (राम) —10^6800infinities
- kalki (कल्कि) —10^8000infinities
- balarama (बलराम) —10^9800infinities
- dasavatara (दशावतार) —10^10000infinities
- bhagavatapurana (भागवतपुराण) —10^18000infinities
- avatamsakasutra (अवतांशकासूत्र) —10^30000infinities
- mahadeva (महादेव) —10^50000infinities
- prajapati (प्रजापति) —10^60000infinities
- jyotiba (ज्योतिबा) —10^80000infinities
- parvati (पार्वती) 10^20000000000infinities
- paro (पॅरो) 10^400000000000000000infinities
