The Indian numbering system is used in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

, and

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

to express large numbers, which differs from the

International System of Units The International System of Units, internationally known by the abbreviation SI (from French ), is the modern form of the metric system and the world's most widely used system of measurement. It is the only system of measurement with official s ...

. Commonly used quantities include ''

lakh 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. F ...

'' (one hundred thousand) and ''

crore Crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes the quantity ten million (107) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. In many international contexts, the decimal quantity is formatted as 10,000,000, but when used in the context of the India ...

'' (ten million) written as 1,00,000 and 1,00,00,000 respectively in some locales. For example: 150,000

rupee Rupee (, ) is the common name for the currency, currencies of Indian rupee, India, Mauritian rupee, Mauritius, Nepalese rupee, Nepal, Pakistani rupee, Pakistan, Seychellois rupee, Seychelles, and Sri Lankan rupee, Sri Lanka, and of former cu ...

s 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 Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one writing system, script to another that involves swapping Letter (alphabet), letters (thus ''wikt:trans-#Prefix, trans-'' + ''wikt:littera#Latin, liter-'') in predictable ways, such as ...

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 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, the next powers of ten are one ''lakh'', ten ''lakh'', one ''crore'', ten ''crore'', one ''arab'' (or one hundred ''crore''), and so on.

Multiples

The Indian system is

decimal The decimal numeral system (also called the base-ten positional numeral system and denary or decanary) is the standard system for denoting integer and non-integer numbers. It is the extension to non-integer numbers (''decimal fractions'') of th ...

(base-10), same as in the

, and the first five

orders of magnitude In a ratio scale based on powers of ten, the order of magnitude is a measure of the nearness of two figures. Two numbers are "within an order of magnitude" of each other if their ratio is between 1/10 and 10. In other words, the two numbers are wi ...

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 rest of the world,

long and short scales The long and short scales are two power of 10, powers of ten number naming systems that are consistent with each other for smaller order of magnitude, numbers, but are contradictory for larger numbers. Other numbering systems, particularly ...

, there are names for every ''third'' power of ten. The short scale uses million (10⁶), billion (10⁹), trillion (10¹²), etc.

Decimal formatting

The Indian system groups digits of a large decimal representation differently than the

. 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. Like English and other locales, the Indian system uses a period as the

decimal separator FIle:Decimal separators.svg, alt=Four types of separating decimals: a) 1,234.56. b) 1.234,56. c) 1'234,56. d) ١٬٢٣٤٫٥٦., Both a comma and a full stop (or period) are generally accepted decimal separators for international use. The apost ...

and the

comma The comma is a punctuation mark that appears in several variants in different languages. Some typefaces render it as a small line, slightly curved or straight, but inclined from the vertical; others give it the appearance of a miniature fille ...

for grouping, while others use a comma for decimal separator and a thin space or point to group digits.

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 /lɑːkʰ/ * crore /kɹɔːɹ/ (or /kɹoʊɹ/ in American English) * arab /ʌˈɾʌb/ * kharab /kʰʌˈɾʌb/

Names of numbers

The table below includes the spelling and pronunciation of numbers in various Indian languages along with corresponding short scale names.

Historic numbering systems

Numbering systems in Hindu epics

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 The ''Ramayana'' (; ), also known as ''Valmiki Ramayana'', as traditionally attributed to Valmiki, is a smriti text (also described as a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic) from ancient India, one of the two important epics ...

Other numbering systems

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 A vigesimal ( ) or base-20 (base-score) numeral system is based on 20 (number), twenty (in the same way in which the decimal, decimal numeral system is based on 10 (number), ten). ''wikt:vigesimal#English, Vigesimal'' is derived from the Latin a ...

(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. This system became the established norm in Kumaon by 1891.

Usage in different languages

Below is a list of translations for the words lakh and crore in other languages spoken in the Indian subcontinent: Formal written publications in English in India tend to use lakh/crore for Indian currency and International numbering for foreign currencies.

Current usage

The official usage of this system is limited to the nations of

and

. It is universally employed within these countries, and is preferred to the International numbering system.

and

used this system in the past but has switched to the International numbering system in recent years. In the

Maldives The Maldives, officially the Republic of Maldives, and historically known as the Maldive Islands, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in South Asia located in the Indian Ocean. The Maldives is southwest of Sri Lanka and India, abou ...

, the term lakh is widely used in official documents and local speech. However, the

is preferred for higher denominations (such as millions). Most institutions and citizens in India use the Indian number system. The

Reserve Bank of India Reserve Bank of India, abbreviated as RBI, is the central bank of the Republic of India, and regulatory body responsible for regulation of the Indian banking system and Indian rupee, Indian currency. Owned by the Ministry of Finance (India), Min ...

was noted as a rare exception in 2015, whereas by 2024 the Indian system was used for amounts in rupees and the International system for foreign currencies throughout the Reserve Bank's website.

old
an
new website
(known on archive.org since 5 Apr 2024). Retrieved 16 Apr 2024.

References

;Notes ;References {{Reflist Numerals Numbering system Numbering system Numbering system Numbering system Numeral systems Economy of Bangladesh