Indian numbering system
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- "Neel" redirects here. For "Neel" as an Indian personal name, see Neil.
The traditional Indian numbering system, used today in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Myanmar (Burma), is based on a unique grouping of 2 decimal places, rather than the 3 decimal places commonplace in the West (China and Japan, for instance, use 4). 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 British usage, the long scale was used, with one billion equivalent to a million million.
| Term | Figure | No of zeros | Western system (short scale) |
|---|---|---|---|
| एक (Ek) | 1 | 0 | 1 (One) |
| दस (Das) | 10 | 1 | 10 (Ten) |
| सौ (Sau) | 100 | 2 | 100 (Hundred) |
| सहस्त्र (Sahastr) / हजार (Hazaar) | 1,000 | 3 | 1,000 (One thousand) |
| लाख (Lakh) | 1,00,000 | 5 | 100,000 (One hundred thousand) |
| करोड़ (Crore) | 1,00,00,000 | 7 | 10,000,000 (Ten million) |
| अरब (Arab) | 1,00,00,00,000 | 9 | 1,000,000,000 (One billion) |
| खरब (Kharab) | 1,00,00,00,00,000 | 11 | 100,000,000,000 (One hundred billion) |
| नील (Neel) | 1,00,00,00,00,00,000 | 13 | 10,000,000,000,000 (Ten trillion) |
| पद्म (Padma) | 1,00,00,00,00,00,00,000 | 15 | 1,000,000,000,000,000 (One quadrillion) |
| शंख (Shankh) | 1,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,000 | 17 | 100,000,000,000,000,000 (One hundred quadrillion) |
| महाशंख (Mahaashankh) | 1,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,000 | 19 | 10,000,000,000,000,000,000 (Ten quintillion) |
Only arab, crore and lakh are commonly used; the higher numbers listed above are relatively unheard of, though padma and kharab are sometimes used in Hindi. Others like Neel, Padma, Shankh are more commonly found in old sections of Indian Mathematics. More common is to use lakh and crore repeatedly or in combination, saying 1 lakh crore for 1012 or one trillion. In Mumbai (Bombay), khokha is underworld slang for a crore and peti is slang for a lakh. The term crore (کرور (Korur) in Persian) was also used in Iran until recent decades, but with the meaning of 500,000. Lakh has entered the Swahili language as "laki" and is in common use.
