The
Indian numbering system, used today in India
, Pakistan
, Bangladesh
, Nepal
and Myanmar
(Burma), is
based on grouping by two decimal places,
rather than the three decimal places commonplace in most parts of
the world. This system of measurement introduces separators
into numbers in places appropriate to the two-digit grouping. For
example, 30 million (3 crore) rupees would be written as
Rs.3,00,00,000, with commas at the
thousand,
lakh, and
crore levels, instead of Rs.30,000,000.
The terms
crore and
lakh are in widespread use today in
Indian English.
The table below follows the
short scale
usage of billion being a thousand million.
In India, following
former British
usage, the
long scale was used, with one billion
equivalent to a million million.
| Hindi (Transliteration) |
Figure |
Power
notation |
Short scale English |
| एक (Ek) |
1 |
100 |
1 (One) |
| दस (Das) |
10 |
101 |
10 (Ten) |
| सौ (Sau) |
100 |
102 |
100 (Hundred) |
| सहस्र (Sahasr) / हजार (Hazaar) |
1,000 |
103 |
1,000 (One thousand) |
| लाख (Lakh) |
1,00,000 |
105 |
100,000 (One hundred thousand) |
| करोड़ (Crore) |
1,00,00,000 |
107 |
10,000,000 (Ten million) |
| अरब (Arawb) |
1,00,00,00,000 |
109 |
1,000,000,000 (One billion) |
| खरब (Kharawb) |
1,00,00,00,00,000 |
1011 |
100,000,000,000 (One hundred billion) |
| नील (Neel) |
1,00,00,00,00,00,000 |
1013 |
10,000,000,000,000 (Ten trillion) |
| पद्म (Padma) |
1,00,00,00,00,00,00,000 |
1015 |
1,000,000,000,000,000 (One quadrillion) |
| शंख (Shankh) |
1,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,000 |
1017 |
100,000,000,000,000,000 (One hundred quadrillion) |
| महाशंख (Mahashankh) |
1,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,000 |
1019 |
10,000,000,000,000,000,000 (Ten quintillion) |
The higher numbers listed above
arawb are not commonly
used, though
padma and
kharawb are sometimes used
in
Hindi.
Neel,
Padma,
Shankh are more commonly found in old sections of
Indian Mathematics.
Instead of saying the higher numbers, it is more common to use
lakh and
crore repeatedly or in combination,
saying
1 lakh crore for 10
12 or one
trillion.
The term
crore (کرور [Korur] in Persian) was also used in Iran
until recent
decades, but with the meaning of 500,000.
In
Sinhalese, a crore is called
kōţiya (Sanskrit: कोटि / Koti), and a lakh is called
lakshaya (Sanskrit: लक्ष / Laksha) .
Lakh has entered the
Swahili language as
"laki" and is in common use.
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