The Devanagari numerals are the symbols used to write numbers in the Devanagari script, predominantly used for northern Indian languages. They are used to write decimal numbers, instead of the Western Arabic numerals.
Modern Devanagari | Western Arabic | Words for the cardinal number | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sanskrit (wordstem) | Hindi | Marathi | Nepali | |||
० | शून्य | शून्य | शून्य | शून्य | ||
१ | एक | एक | एक | एक | ||
२ | द्वि | दो | दोन | दुइ | ||
३ | त्रि | तीन | तीन | तिन | ||
४ | चतुर् | चार | चार | चारि | ||
५ | पञ्च | पाँच | पाच | पाँच | ||
६ | षट् | छह | सहा | छअ | ||
७ | सप्त | सात | सात | सात | ||
८ | अष्ट | आठ | आठ | आठ | ||
९ | नव | नौ | नऊ | नअ |
The word for zero was calqued into Arabic as Arabic: صفر|rtl=yes Arabic: sifr, meaning 'nothing', which became the term "zero" in many European languages via Medieval Latin .[1]
Devanagari digits shapes may vary depending on geographical area or epoch. Some of the variants are also seen in older Sanskrit literature.[2] [3]