Vedic knowledge is in the form of slokas or poems in Sanskrit verse. A number was encoded using consonant groups of the Sanskrit alphabet, and vowels were provided as additional latitude to the author in poetic composition. The coding key is given as Kaadi nav, taadi nav, paadi panchak, yaadashtak ta ksha shunyam

Translated as below

  • letter "ka" and the following eight letters
  • letter "ta" and the following eight letters
  • letter "pa" and the following four letters
  • letter "ya" and the following seven letters, and
  • letter "ksha" for zero.

 

In other words,

  • ka, ta, pa, ya = 1
  • kha, tha, pha, ra = 2
  • ga, da, ba, la = 3
  • gha, dha, bha, va = 4
  • gna, na, ma, scha = 5
  • cha, ta, sha = 6
  • chha, tha, sa = 7
  • ja, da, ha = 8
  • jha, dha = 9
  • ksha = 0

For those of you who don't know or remember the varnmala, here it is:


ka kha ga gha gna
cha chha ja jha inya
Ta Tha Rda Dha Rna
ta tha da dha na
pa pha ba bha ma
ya ra la va scha
sha sa ha chjha tra gna

Thus pa pa is 11, ma ra is 52. Words kapa, tapa , papa, and yapa all mean the same that is 11. It was upto the author to choose one that fit the meaning of the verse well.

An interesting example of this is a hymn below in the praise of God Krishna that gives the value of Pi to the 32 decimal places as .3141592653589793238462643 3832792. 

Gopi bhaagya madhu vraata
	Shrngisho dadhisandhiga
Khalajivita khaataava
	Galahaataarasandhara

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