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Indian numbering system
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Indian convention of naming large numbers
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This article contains Indic text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks or boxes, misplaced vowels or missing conjuncts instead of Indic text.
The Indian numbering system is used in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh to express large numbers, which differs from the International System of Units. Commonly used quantities include lakh (one hundred thousand, 105) and crore (ten million, 107) – written as 1,00,000 and 1,00,00,000 respectively in some locales.[1] For example: 150,000 rupees is "1.5 lakh rupees" which can be written as "1,50,000 rupees", and 30,000,000 (thirty million) rupees is referred to as "3 crore rupees" which can be written as "3,00,00,000 rupees".
There are names for numbers larger than crore, but they are less commonly used. These include arab (100 crore, 109), kharab (100 arab, 1011), nil or sometimes transliterated as neel (100 kharab, 1013), padma (100 nil, 1015), shankh (100 padma, 1017), and mahashankh (100 shankh, 1019). In common parlance (though inconsistent), the lakh and crore terminology repeats for larger numbers. Thus lakh crore is 1012.
In the ancient Indian system, still in use in regional languages of India, there are single-word names for up to 1062 (see § Historic numbering systems). In the Indian system, now prevalent in the northern parts,[clarification needed] the next powers of ten are one lakh, ten lakh, one crore, ten crore, one arab (or one hundred crore), and so on.
Multiples<br>[edit]
The Indian system is decimal (base-10), same as in the International System of Units, and the first five orders of magnitude are named in a similar way: one (100), ten (101), one hundred (102), one thousand (103), and ten thousand (104). For higher powers of ten, naming diverges. The Indian system uses names for every second power of ten: lakh (105), crore (107), arab (109), kharab (1011), etc. In the long and short scales, there are names for every third power of ten. The short scale uses million (106), billion (109), trillion (1012), etc.
Decimal formatting<br>[edit]
The Indian system groups digits of a large decimal is represented differently than the International System of Units. The Indian system does group the first three digits to the left of the decimal point, but thereafter, groups by two digits to align with the naming of quantities at multiples of 100.[2]
Indian
International
5,00,000
500,000
12,34,56,789
123,456,789
17,00,00,00,000
17,000,000,000
6,78,90,00,00,00,00,000
6,789,000,000,000,000
Like English and other locales, the Indian system uses a period as the decimal separator and the comma for grouping, while others use a comma for decimal separator and a thin space or point to group digits.[3]
Pronunciation in English<br>[edit]
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 /lɑːkʰ/, /kə.ɾoːɽ/, respectively).
lakh /lɑːkʰ/
crore /kə.ɾoːɽ/ (or /kɹoʊɹ/ in American English)
arab /ə.ɾəb/
kharab /kʰə.ɾəb/
Names of numbers<br>[edit]
The table below includes the spelling and pronunciation of numbers in various Indian languages along with corresponding short scale names.
Value
Numerals
Short scale
Indian English
Hindustani<br>Hindi / Urdu
Marathi
Bengali
Nepali
Tamil
Telugu
one
one
एक / ایک<br>(ēk)
एक<br>(ēk)
এক<br>(êk)
एक<br>(ēk)
ஒன்று<br>(oṉṟu)
ఒకటి<br>(okaṭi)
10
10
ten
ten
दस / دس<br>(das)
दहा<br>(dahā)
দশ<br>(dôś)
दश<br>(daś)
பத்து<br>(pattu)
పది<br>(padi)
102
100
hundred
hundred
सौ / سو<br>(sau)
शंभर<br>(śambhar)
শত<br>(śato)
सय<br>(saya)
நூறு<br>(nūṟu)
వంద/నూరు<br>(vanda/nūru)
103
1,000
thousand
thousand
हज़ार / ہزار<br>(hazār)
एक हजार<br>(ēk hajār)
হাজার<br>(hāzār)
एक हजार<br>(ēk hajār)
ஆயிரம்<br>(āyiram)
వెయ్యి<br>(veyyi)
104
10,000
ten thousand
ten thousand
दस हज़ार / دس ہزار<br>(das hazār)
दहा हजार<br>(dahā hajār)
অযুত<br>(ōjut)
দশ হাজার<br>(dôś hāzār)
दश हजार<br>(daś hajār)
பத்தாயிரம்<br>(pattāyiram)<br>ஆயுதம்<br>(āyutam)
పది వేలు<br>(padi vēlu)
105
1,00,000
hundred thousand
lakh
लाख / لاکھ<br>(lākh)
एक लाख<br>(ēk lākh)
লক্ষ<br>(lôkkhō)
লাখ<br>(lākh)
एक लाख<br>(ēk...