Indian numbering system

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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 British usage, the long scale was used, with one billion equivalent to a million million.

Term (Hindi transliteration) Figure Power
notation
World system (short scale)
एक (Ek) 1 100 1 (One)
दस (Das) 10 101 10 (Ten)
सौ (Sau) 100 102 100 (Hundred)
सहस्त्र (Sahastr) / 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 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.

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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