Large Number System from Vedas and Vedic Literature

Abstract

Hinduism is undoubtedly the oldest religion of the world and though there are disagreement over the period amongst some historian but it was during 1900 to 1500 BC when Hindu religion came into existence. The foremost religious text of Hindu is Vedas and the origin of the Vedas can be traced back as far as 1500 BCE, when a large group of Aryans crossed the Hindu Kush Mountains and came to Indian subcontinent. The Vedas are full of knowledge.The Vedas have guided the Indian civilization for thousands of years and the Four Vedas are the pillar of Hinduism. The very word Veda has a derivational meaning – the fountainhead and illimitable storehouse of all knowledge. This article will only focus on the mathematical content available in Vedas, Puranas, Ramayana and Mahabharata. In Rig Veda and Atharva Veda, there are several instance where numbers in the power of tens, even numbers, odd numbers, multiples of four, value of pi, mathematical operation such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division have been discussed not in the way we use in our courses but the presence of larger number even up to 1060 is evident. The speed of light, about seven colourful rays of sunlight all these are enough to make a belief that Vedas have put a strong foundation of number system and decimal system. Not even that, even geometrical knowledge found in Sulbha sutra as par excellence and many of them have origin prior to Greek mathematician to whom we owe everything.