| 11 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 100 | 2 | 2 | |
| Rudra, | ocean, | Rama, | quality, | Veda, | hundred, | two, | couple, | |
| 32 | ||||||||
| Teeth: | by the wise have been set forth in order the mighty lords.'[1]
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It occurred to Wilhelm von Humboldt, in studying this curious system of numeration, that he had before his eyes the evidence of a process very like that which actually produced the regular numeral words denoting one, two, three, &c., in the various languages of the world. The following passage in which, more than sixty years ago, he set forth this view, seems to me to contain a nearly perfect key to the theory of numeral words. 'If we take into consideration the origin of actual numerals, the process of their formation appears evidently to have been the same as that here described. The latter is nothing else than a wider extension of the former. For when 5 is expressed, as in several languages of the Malay family, by "hand" (lima), this is precisely the same thing as when in the description of numbers by words, 2 is denoted by "wing." Indisputably there lie at the root of all numerals such metaphors as these, though they cannot always be now traced. But people seem early to have felt that the multiplicity of such signs for the same number was superfluous, too clumsy, and leading to misunderstandings.' Therefore, he goes on to argue, synonyms of numerals are very rare. And to nations with a deep sense of language, the feeling must soon have been present, though perhaps without rising to distinct consciousness, that recollections of the original etymology and descriptive meaning of numerals had best be allowed to disappear, so as to leave the numerals themselves to become mere conventional terms.
- ↑ Sir W. Jones in 'As. Res.' vol. ii. 1790, p. 296; E. Jacquet in 'Nouv. Journ. Asiat.' 1835; W. v. Humboldt, 'Kawi-Spr.' vol. i. p. 19. This system of recording dates, &c., extended as far as Tibet and the Indian Archipelago. Many important points of Oriental chronology depend on such formulas. Unfortunately their evidence is more or less vitiated by inconsistencies in the use of words for numbers.
