Aryabhata cipher

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Aryabhata cipher or Aryabhatiya number system is a code to represent numbers by words. Aryabhata used it in the first chapter titled 'Geetika Padam 'of his book, Aryabhatiya, so that he could describe his mathematics in Sanskrit verse.

The basis of this number system is mentioned in the second stanza of the first chapter of Aryabhatiya.

The Varga (Group/Class) letters Ka to Ma are to be placed in the varga (square) places (1st,100th,10000th ...etc places) and Avarga letters like Ya, Ra , La .. have to be placed in Avarga places (10th,1000th,...etc places).

The Varga letters 'Ka' to 'Ma' have value from 1,2,3 .. up to 25 and Avarga letters 'Ya' to 'Ha' have value 30,40,50.. up to 100.In the Varga and Avarga letters, beyond the ninth vowel (place), new symbols can be used.

The values for vowels are as follows : i= 100 ; u = 10000, ru = 1000000 and so on.

Aryabhata used this number system for representing both small and large numbers in his mathematical and astronomical calculations. This system can even be used to represent fractions and mixed fractions. For example nga is 1/5, nja is 1/10 and Jhardam (jha=9:it's half) = 4 1/2