Re:Very old, very sophisticated tools found in India
by kumarvvr on Sunday February 04, 2018 @04:57AM
(#16302127)
In most ancient Indian texts, the meaning of Sanskrit verses refer to light, rather than the sun.
> it looks like the result of a measurement or a calculation rather than a "magic" number
That is because in Sanskrit, numbers are represented in form of "value" "qualifier" "qualifier", "value" "qualifier".. and so on.
For example
"sahasra" means 1000 (can be thousand anything),
"sata" means 100,
"dasa" means 10, &
"varsha" means year (this year, that year, a year, next year, etc)
To quote the famous Ramayana, to represent 11,000 years, it was written in the book as
"dasa varsha shahasrani, dasa varsha sata nicha"
meaning 10 x 1000 years + 10 x 100 years = 11000 years.
One number placed after the other, without any conjunction implied addition.
Elsewhere in the same epic, Rama goes to live in the jungle for
"nava pancha cha varshani"
meaning 9 + 5 years = 14 years, "nava" is 9 and "pancha" is 5
Note : "cha", "nicha" etc are similar to filler words in english
> it looks like the result of a measurement or a calculation rather than a "magic" number
That is because in Sanskrit, numbers are represented in form of "value" "qualifier" "qualifier", "value" "qualifier".. and so on.
For example
"sahasra" means 1000 (can be thousand anything), "sata" means 100, "dasa" means 10, & "varsha" means year (this year, that year, a year, next year, etc)
To quote the famous Ramayana, to represent 11,000 years, it was written in the book as
"dasa varsha shahasrani, dasa varsha sata nicha"
meaning 10 x 1000 years + 10 x 100 years = 11000 years.
One number placed after the other, without any conjunction implied addition.
Elsewhere in the same epic, Rama goes to live in the jungle for
"nava pancha cha varshani"
meaning 9 + 5 years = 14 years, "nava" is 9 and "pancha" is 5
Note : "cha", "nicha" etc are similar to filler words in english