The Indian numbering system is used in the Indian subcontinent (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka) to express large numbers. The terms lakh or 1,00,000 (one hundred thousand, written as 100,000 in Pakistan and outside the subcontinent) and crore or 1,00,00,000[1] (ten million, written as 10,000,000 outside the subcontinent) are the most commonly used terms in Indian English to express large numbers in the system.
The Indian numbering system corresponds to the Western system for the zeroth through fourth powers of ten: one (100), ten (101), one hundred (102), one thousand (103), and ten thousand (104). For higher powers of ten, the names no longer correspond. In the ancient Indian system still in use in regional languages of India, there are words for (1062). These names respectively starting at 1000 are sahasra, ayuta, laksha, niyuta, koti, arbhudha, abhja, karva, nikarva, mahapadma, shanmkhu, jaladhi, amtya, madhya, paraardha. In the Indian system now prevalent in the northern parts,[clarification needed] the next powers of ten are called one lakh, ten lakh, one crore, ten crore, one arab (or one hundred crore), and so on; there are new words for every second power of ten (105 + 2n): lakh (105), crore (107), arab (109), kharab (1011), etc. In the Western system, the next powers of ten are called one hundred thousand, one million, ten million, one hundred million, one billion (short scale)/one thousand million (long scale), and so on; in the short scale, there are new words for every third power of ten (103n): million (106), billion (109), trillion (1012), etc.
Written numbers differ in the placement of commas, grouping digits into powers of one hundred (102) in the Indian system (except for the first thousand), and into powers of one thousand (103) in the Western system. The Indian and most English systems both use the decimal point and the comma digit-separator, while other languages and countries using the Western numbering system use the decimal comma and the thin space or point to group digits.[2]
There are terms for numbers larger than 1 crore as well, but these are not commonly used. These include 1 arab (equal to 100 crore or 1 billion (short scale)), 1 kharab (equal to 100 arab or 100 billion (short scale)), 1 nil (sometimes transliterated as neel; equal to 100 kharab or 10 trillion), 1 padma (equal to 100 nil or 1 quadrillion), 1 shankh (equal to 100 padma or 100 quadrillion), and 1 mahashankh (equal to 100 shankh or 10 quintillion). In common parlance, the thousand, lakh, and crore terminology (though inconsistent) repeats for larger numbers: thus 1,000,000,000,000 (one trillion) becomes 1 lakh crore, written as 10,00,00,00,00,000.
Examples
lakh: 150,000 rupees in India is referred to as "1.5 lakh rupees", which is written as 1,50,000 rupees;
crore: 30,000,000 (thirty million) rupees is referred to as "3 crore rupees", which is written as 3,00,00,000 rupees with commas at the thousand, lakh, and crore places.
Pronunciation in English
When speakers of indigenous Indian languages are speaking English, the pronunciations may be closer to their mother tongue; e.g. "lakh" and "crore" might be pronounced /lɑkʰ/, /kɑrɔːr/, respectively.
lakh /læk/
crore /krɔː(ɹ̠)/
arab /æˈɹ̠æb/
kharab /kʰæˈɹ̠æb/
Use of separators
The Indian numbering system uses separators differently from the international norm. Instead of grouping digits by threes as in the international system, the Indian numbering system groups the rightmost three digits together (until the hundreds place), and thereafter groups by sets of two digits.[3] One trillion would thus be written as 10,00,00,00,00,000 or 10 kharab (or one lakh crore). This makes the number convenient to read using the system's terminology. For example:
Indian system
Indian system (words)
International system
International system (words)
5,00,000
Five lakh
500,000
Five hundred thousand
12,34,56,789
Twelve crore, thirty-four lakh, fifty-six hazar, seven hundred, and eighty-nine
123,456,789
One hundred and twenty-three million, four hundred and fifty-six thousand, seven hundred and eighty-nine
Six quadrillion, seven hundred and eighty-nine trillion
This accords with the Indian numbering system, which has units for thousands, hundreds of thousands, tens of millions, etc.
Names of numbers
The table below follows the short scale usage of one billion being one thousand million. In India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, following former British usage, the long scale was used, with one billion equivalent to one million million.
There are various systems of numeration found in various ancient epic literature of India (itihasas). The following table gives one such system used in the Valmiki Ramayana.[5]
The denominations by which land was measured in the Kumaon Kingdom were based on arable lands and thus followed an approximate system with local variations. The most common of these was a vigesimal (base-20) numbering system with the main denomination called a bisi (see Hindustani number bīs), which corresponded to the land required to sow 20 nalis of seed. Consequently, its actual land measure varied based on the quality of the soil.[6] This system became the established norm in Kumaon by 1891.[7]
In Rohingya, a lakh is called lák and a crore is called kurul. A thousand crore is called kuthí.
In Sinhala, a lakh is called ලක්ෂlakṣa and a crore is called කෝටිkōṭi.
In Tamil, a lakh is called இலட்சம்ilaṭcam and a crore is called கோடிkōṭi.
In Telugu, a lakh is called లక్షlakṣha and a crore is called కోటిkōṭi.
In Urdu, a lakh is called لاکھlākh and a crore is called کروڑkaroṛ. A billion is called arab (ارب), and one hundred billion/arab is called a kharab (کھرب).
Lakh has entered the Swahili language as "laki" and is in common use.
Formal written publications in English in India tend to use lakh/crore for Indian currency and International numbering for foreign currencies.[8]
Current usage
The usage of this system is limited to the nations of Nepal, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Myanmar. It is universally employed within these countries, and is preferred to the English numbering system.[9]
Sri Lanka used this system in the past but has switched to the English numbering system in recent years.
In the Maldives, the term lakh is widely used in official documents and local speech. However, the Westernised Hindu-Arabicnumeral system is preferred for higher denominations (such as millions).
Most institutions and citizens in India use the Indian number system. The Reserve Bank of India was noted as a rare exception in 2015,[10] whereas by 2024 the Indian system was used for amounts in rupees and the Western system for foreign currencies throughout the Reserve Bank's website.[11]
The decimal numeral system is the standard system for denoting integer and non-integer numbers. It is the extension to non-integer numbers of the Hindu–Arabic numeral system. The way of denoting numbers in the decimal system is often referred to as decimal notation.
In linguistics, a numeral in the broadest sense is a word or phrase that describes a numerical quantity. Some theories of grammar use the word "numeral" to refer to cardinal numbers that act as a determiner that specify the quantity of a noun, for example the "two" in "two hats". Some theories of grammar do not include determiners as a part of speech and consider "two" in this example to be an adjective. Some theories consider "numeral" to be a synonym for "number" and assign all numbers to a part of speech called "numerals". Numerals in the broad sense can also be analyzed as a noun, as a pronoun, or for a small number of words as an adverb.
A decimal separator is a symbol that separates the integer part from the fractional part of a number written in decimal form. Different countries officially designate different symbols for use as the separator. The choice of symbol also affects the choice of symbol for the thousands separator used in digit grouping.
Thai numerals are a set of numerals traditionally used in Thailand, although the Arabic numerals are more common due to extensive westernization of Thailand in the modern Rattanakosin period. Thai numerals follow the Hindu–Arabic numeral system commonly used in the rest of the world. In Thai language, numerals often follow the modified noun and precede a measure word, although variations to this pattern occur.
A crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes ten million (10,000,000 or 107 in scientific notation) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. It is written as 1,00,00,000 with the local 2,2,3 style of digit group separators (one lakh is equal to one hundred thousand, and is written as 1,00,000).
A lakh (; abbreviated L; sometimes written lac) is a unit in the Indian numbering system equal to one hundred thousand (100,000; scientific notation: 105). In the Indian 2, 2, 3 convention of digit grouping, it is written as 1,00,000. For example, in India, 150,000 rupees becomes 1.5 lakh rupees, written as ₹1,50,000 or INR 1,50,000.
Different cultures used different traditional numeral systems for naming large numbers. The extent of large numbers used varied in each culture. Two interesting points in using large numbers are the confusion on the term billion and milliard in many countries, and the use of zillion to denote a very large number where precision is not required.
English number words include numerals and various words derived from them, as well as a large number of words borrowed from other languages.
Rupee is the common name for the currencies of India, Mauritius, Nepal, Pakistan, Seychelles, and Sri Lanka, and of former currencies of Afghanistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, British East Africa, Burma, German East Africa, and Tibet. In Indonesia and the Maldives, the unit of currency is known as rupiah and rufiyaa respectively, cognates of the word rupee.
A numerical digit or numeral is a single symbol used alone, or in combinations, to represent numbers in positional notation, such as the common base 10. The name "digit" originates from the Latin digiti meaning fingers.
The Pakistani rupee is the official currency in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The issuance of the currency is controlled by the State Bank of Pakistan. It was officially adopted by the Government of Pakistan in 1949. Earlier the coins and notes were issued and controlled by the Reserve Bank of India until 1949, when it was handed over to the Government and State Bank of Pakistan, by the Government and Reserve Bank of India.
Two naming scales for large numbers have been used in English and other European languages since the early modern era: the long and short scales. Most English variants use the short scale today, but the long scale remains dominant in many non-English-speaking areas, including continental Europe and Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America. These naming procedures are based on taking the number n occurring in 103n+3 or 106n and concatenating Latin roots for its units, tens, and hundreds place, together with the suffix -illion.
The long and short scales are two of several naming systems for integer powers of ten which use some of the same terms for different magnitudes.
The Hindu–Arabic numeral system is a positional base-ten numeral system for representing integers; its extension to non-integers is the decimal numeral system, which is presently the most common numeral system.
The Eastern Arabic numerals, also called Indo-Arabic numerals, are the symbols used to represent numerical digits in conjunction with the Arabic alphabet in the countries of the Mashriq, the Arabian Peninsula, and its variant in other countries that use the Persian numerals on the Iranian plateau and in Asia.
Romanian numbers are the system of number names used in Romanian to express counts, quantities, ranks in ordered sets, fractions, multiplication, and other information related to numbers.
A numeral is a character that denotes a number. The decimal number digits 0–9 are used widely in various writing systems throughout the world, however the graphemes representing the decimal digits differ widely. Therefore Unicode includes 22 different sets of graphemes for the decimal digits, and also various decimal points, thousands separators, negative signs, etc. Unicode also includes several non-decimal numerals such as Aegean numerals, Roman numerals, counting rod numerals, Mayan numerals, Cuneiform numerals and ancient Greek numerals. There is also a large number of typographical variations of the Western Arabic numerals provided for specialized mathematical use and for compatibility with earlier character sets, such as ² or ②, and composite characters such as ½.
Burmese numerals are a set of numerals traditionally used in the Burmese language, although Arabic numerals are also used. Burmese numerals follow the Hindu–Arabic numeral system commonly used in the rest of the world.
Like many Indo-Aryan languages, Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu) has a decimal numeral system that is contracted to the extent that nearly every number 1–99 is irregular, and needs to be memorized as a separate numeral.
Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, or Clean India Mission is a country-wide campaign initiated by the Government of India on 2 October 2014 to eliminate open defecation and improve solid waste management and to create Open Defecation Free (ODF) villages. The program also aims to increase awareness of menstrual health management. It is a restructured version of the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan which was launched by the Congress in 2009.
References
↑ "Knowing our Numbers". Department Of School Education And Literacy. National Repository of Open Educational Resources. Archived from the original on 16 February 2016. Retrieved 13 February 2016.
↑ Use of separator in digit grouping here follows customs in most English-speaking countries. For international standards and details, see decimal mark.
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