A Case for Reviving Tamil Numerals

N ostalgia for eras past is a motif that returns time and time again. People my generation (born post-2000) romanticize the 1980s and 1990s and hybridize facets from those decades with current trends. One of my favorite movies, Midnight in Paris (2011), roots its entire plot in this concept, showcasing nostalgia both in the 2010s and the roaring twenties. I, for one, listen to Aṉṟoru Nāḷ—a Tamil song from the late 1960s—on rainy nights with the same admiration as my parents when they played it for me as a child. I see this everywhere, from music to movies to design. Why not apply the same to language?

I advocate here for the revival of obsolete Tamil numerals, amongst other symbols, used in the early 20ᵗʰ century. I may write pieces in Tamil in the future; this additionally doubles as a guide for anyone who reads them, in case they’re unfamiliar with the symbols.

Catalysts

I consider myself tech-savvy, at least on the right side of the bell curve. I try to be resourceful with my devices, choosing settings that are both pleasing to the eye and seamlessly integrated with the way I’m attuned to using them.

So, when I found that the time on Apple devices could be configured to appear in different scripts, I got very excited. Kannada being my favorite language, As was stated in the 33ʳᵈ verse of the Kavirāǰamārgam̮, ನುಡಿಗೆಲ್ಲಂ ಸಲ್ಲದ ಕನ್ನಡಂ «nuḍigellam̮ sallada kannaḍam̮» “Kannaḍa [is] incomparable to any other language.” As much as I love Tamil, Old and Middle Kannada are the perfect mix of novelty and familiarity—both are very similar to Literary Tamil, but have certain features that make them stand apart. And poetry in those languages is beautiful. Perhaps I’ll write a blog post on this someday. I naturally chose that for my watchface. Funnily enough, this worked against me. While traveling solo in Germany, a lady asked me for the time, and I instinctively showed her my watch. Perhaps she was looking for Latin numerals—she was very confused. So, I had to eventually tell her in German after a confusing back-and-forth.

However, one Indian language was curiously missing—Tamil. Maybe it was because Tamil numerals hadn’t been used regularly in decades. But that was also true of Malayalam, which was supported. As a native speaker, I felt my language should alse be represented. And I wasn’t alone in thinking this.

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Months later, I found myself in a museum in a small village off the beaten path in southern India. There, off to the side, was a fairly readable inscription which I later dated to August 28ᵗʰ, 1782: For those who can read Tamil, you may notice a few things that might confuse you. First, words had no spacing between them before the arrival of the Europeans. Second, we didn’t mark mute consonants (those without a following vowel) with a puḷḷi or dot on top; we left them up to context. Those marked in the transcription with a puḷḷi are to indicate ligatures in the inscription—consonant conjuncts that you might recognize from other Indian scripts. Third, the last few characters are in the Grantha script, not Tamil. Finally, the scribe did mix up their periya ṟa and ciṉṉa ra 😃.

𑿿சாலிவாகனசகாபிததம௲

௭௱௭௰௫கலியுகாபிததம௪௲௮

௱௮௰௪௵தனமெலசெலலாநினற

சொபகிறுது௵ஆவணி௴௩௰௳

சுககிறவாரமுமஉத்திரட்டாதிநடச

திரமுஙகூடினசுபதினத்திலமாசி

லாமணியீசுவரசுவாமிசனனதிது

சக்கமபமுமதளவிசைவுசெனை

ககுடைசுபபிறமணியசெட்டியார

குமாரனஆபதுததாரணசெடடி

யாரசெயிதுவைதததறமமநிததி
யமசதாசெரவை𑿿𑌶𑍁𑌭𑌮𑌙𑍍𑌕ல

[It is the] year 1775 of the Šālivāhana era
and 4884 for the Kaliyuga era.
[The date] is the 30th of the Āvaṇi month
in the Šōbʰakr̩ta year that corresponds with this.
The flagstaff and flooring of
the Lord Mācilāmaṇi’s shrine
[installed] on [this] prosperous day, a Friday
of the Uttarabʰādra star,
[represent] the perpetual devotion and gift
bestowed by Apaduddʰāraṇa Čeṭṭiyār,
son of the army commander Subrahmaṇya Čeṭṭiyār.
[Let there be] prosperity and auspiciousness.

While deciphering this, I rediscovered not only the numerals but more symbols that I’d forgotten about. There were symbols to abbreviate lengths of time, including ௵ for “year,” ௴ for “month,” and ௳ for “day.”

They looked elegant, more fitting to the Tamil letters than Latin numerals. Better yet, many of these symbols were already encoded in the Unicode standard, meaning they could be typed.

Rationale

But why? Why should we use them if we’re already accustomed to a certain way of writing things?

Preservation. As it is, very few people use these symbols anymore. My parents, who grew up in Tamil Nadu in the 60s and 70s, when the state government began script reforms, didn’t know of them. However, many old texts of important cultural value use them. These symbols’ obsolescence makes reading them difficult.

Literacy. Many of these symbols are derived from abbreviations of Tamil words (native or loaned from Sanskrit). For example, ௲ “1000” comes from சகச்சிரம் «cakacciram, saɣasram» “id.” This could reduce the burden of learning to read for a state whose literacy rate remains low at 85.5%, compared to neighboring Kerala’s 95.3%. Ministry of Statistics and Programma Implementation, 2023.

Uniqueness. These symbols make Tamil stand apart from other Indian languages. Tamil is the only modern Indic script that has a dedicated “Supplement” block in Unicode (as far as I know). We have so much pride about our language—why not take pride in maintaining it?

Usage

There are too many symbols to cover, which you can find in range 0BE6–0BFA here, and here. I only describe here what I believe would be used commonly by most.

Numerals

Like the Latin script, there are numerals for the digits 0–9. Starting from 0 (௦), they are:

1. ௧
2. ௨
3. ௩
4. ௪
5. ௫
6. ௬
7. ௭
8. ௮
9. ௯

However, unlike Latin numerals, there are separate symbols for 10 (௰), 100 (௱), and 1000 (௲). In the same way that the words for multiples of these numbers are composed, with prefixes for the multiples attached before the bases (e. g., இருபது «irupatu, iruvadŭ» “twenty, two tens”) the numerals for multiples are prefixed to base numerals (e. g., ௨௰).

For numbers with five digits or greater and decimals, the individual digits could be used. There is also an elaborate system for fractions.

Lengths of Time

As shown above, lengths of time immediately follow their quantifier or their name.

Other lengths of time could be analogically abbreviated using the base character of the first letter of the corresponding word. For example, “36s” could be indicated by ௩௰௬ந, where ந stands for நொடி “second.”

Punctuation

Finally, the symbol 𑿿 can be used to mark the beginning and end of a text. However, prima facie, it is unclear how to apply this to modern text. For some inspiration, I provide the example of The Economist, each of whose articles end with the symbol ■. Additionally, it’s not uncommon in older print books to see ornaments in the margins marking the first paragraph of a book, chapter, or section. I use this symbol in both contexts.

Final Thoughts

It’s as simple as that!

It’s easy for me to say that this is simple. I’m nostalgic about older usage of language; after all, I’m a historical linguist. But whereas movies and music are genre-specific and not always relatable, language is universal.

So, let’s maintain linguistic connection to the past! By all means, use slang and modern usage as much as you wish—language evolves over time. However, just like how 80s synths are mashed up with 2020s beats in many songs today, I urge you to try to utilize both the linguistic practices of those around us and those before us.