To multiply one number by another, among the higher or the lower denominations, the simplest and least ambiguous method is to make of the multiplied number a dual or plural, qualified by the other as any ordinary noun would be; and this method is a common one in all ages of the language. For example: páñca pañcāçátas five fifties(250); náva navatáyas nine nineties (810); açītíbhis tisṛ́bhis with three eighties (240); páñca çatā́ni five hundreds; trī́ṇi sahásrāṇi three thousands;ṣaṣṭíṁ sahásrāṇi 60,000; daça ca sahasrāṇy aṣṭāu ca çatāni 10,800: and, combined with addition, trī́ṇi çatā́ni tráyastriṅçataṁ ca 333; sahasre dve pañconaṁ çatam eva ca 2095. a. In an exceptional case or two, the ordinal form appears to take the place of the cardinal as multiplicand in a like combination: thus, ṣaṭtriṅçā́ṅç ca catúraḥ (RV.)36x4 (lit. four of the thirty-six kind); trī́ṅr ekādaçā́n (RV.) or traya ekādaçāsaḥ (ÇÇS. viii. 21. 1) 11x3. b. By a peculiar and wholly illogical construction, such a combination as trīṇi ṣaṣṭiçatāni, which ought to signify 480 (3x100+60), is repeatedly used in the Brāhmaṇas to mean 360 (3x100+60); so also dvé catustriṅçé çaté 234 (not 268); dvāṣaṣṭāni trīṇi çatāni 362; and other like cases. And even R. hastrayaḥ çataçatārdhāḥ 350. |