Egyptian Digits as Origin of the Hindu-Arabic Numerals

Steven de Kloe
______________________________________________________________________________

number nine, number nine

the Beatles, Revolution 9, the Beatles (the White Album), 1968

The ‘Hindu-Arabic numerals’ are the symbols for the figures from 1 to 9 and zero, to indicate
numbers in a (almost always) decimal place-value system. They comprise what are called ‘the
Arabic numerals’ in the European languages, the numerals in use in Arab countries called
‘Indian’ in Arabic and the ‘Devanagari’ numerals of India.
This article aims to establish the plausibility of the hypothesis that ‘Egyptian digits’ in the shape
of demotic numerals of the Roman Period, rather than strictly the elusive ‘Brahmi numerals’,
formed the origin of the Hindu-Arabic numerals.
To achieve this aim three sets of arguments are put forward:
- the presence of zero as a figure in Egyptian documents of the second century AD
- the similarity in shape of the demotic numerals to the Hindu-Arabic ones
- astrological texts as the means of conveyance of these numerals from Egypt to India and further

The earliest reference to the decimal place-value system with a symbol for zero in India appears
in an astrological text from the third century AD, the Yavanajātaka (‘the Horoscopy of the
Greeks’) of Sphujidhvaja.1 This Sanskrit text is a versified version of a second century prose
translation of a Greek original from Alexandria.2
Attestations in Greek papyri from Egypt of the symbol for zero in the first centuries AD are
always in an astronomical/astrological context and tied to the alphabetical sexagesimal notation.3
This symbol for zero most often looks like and is considered to be an abbreviation for
‘nothing’, “an arbitrarily invented symbol intended to indicate an empty place” or “the
counterpart of the cuneiform punctuation mark ”.4
In the demotic P. Carlsberg 32, identified as a table for positions of the planet Mercury, a
demotic symbol for zero occurs twice, but due to its damaged state, like most of the papyri from
Tebtunis/Tell Umm el-Breigat, its shape cannot well be determined.5
P. Vindob. D(emotisch) 12006, also from the Faiyum, but from Soknopaiou Nesos/Dimê, has on
the front side the text ‘Isis, the Divine Child and the World Order’, a ‘hemerology’.6 To mark

1
D. Pingree, The Yavanajātaka of Sphujidhvaja (Cambridge, Massachusetts/London, 1978), vol. II, p.406-407.
2
Pingree, Yavanajātaka, vol. I, p.3.
3
A. Jones, Astronomical Papyri from Oxyrhynchus (P. Oxy. 4133-4300a)(Philadelphia, 1999), p.61-62 & fig.16.
4
O. Neugebauer, The Exact Sciences in Antiquity (Princeton, New Jersey, 1952), p.14: “… an arbitrarily invented
symbol …”.
A. Jones, Astronomical Papyri from Oxyrhynchus, p. 61: “… the cuneiform punctuation mark…”.
5
R.A. Parker, ‘Two Demotic Astronomical Papyri in the Carlsberg Collection’, Acta Orientalia 26 (1962), p.143-
147. (The photo of P. Carlsberg 32 there is better than Egyptian Astronomical Texts III, pl. 79 B.)
F. Hoffmann, ‘Astronomische und astrologische Kleinigkeiten IV: Ein Zeichen für ,,Null” im P. Carlsberg 32?’,
Enchoria 29 (2004/2005), p. 44-52.
6
M.A. Stadler, Isis, das göttliche Kind und die Weltordnung. Neue religiöse Texte aus dem Fayum nach dem
Papyrus Wien D. 12006 Recto (Vienna, 2004).
the sections in the text they have been numbered and the demotic sign for iwv ‘without, nothing’
indicates both zero and ten, suggesting a decimal place-value system!7 The demotic text has an
older, hieratic parallel text, P. Berlin 23057, from the 30th Dynasty, with a similar numbering of
sections.8 Here, also, iwty stands for zero.9
In the Magical Papyrus London-Leiden the concept of zero is personified with the ‘magic name’
iwv, ‘The Nullity’.10 This papyrus can, moreover, serve as an example, as can the bilingual
horoscopic ostraca from Narmouthis/Medinet Madi, of the level to which the Greek and
Egyptian/Demotic languages and cultural spheres converged in the multicultural society of Egypt
of the second century AD.11

Besides the presence of zero a similarity in shape of the Hindu-Arabic to the demotic numerals
suggests their relationship. The demotic figures for the cardinal numbers from 1 to 9 have
become distinct signs instead of the repetition of strokes still characterising the Brahmi numerals
from 1 to 3, that are, like the Chinese numerals, horizontal.
The Roman demotic signs for 3 and 4 are clearly distinguishable and should not lead to
confusion, but, remarkably, they did to O. Neugebauer & A. Volten in their edition of P.
Carlsberg 9, containing the Egyptian version of the lunisolar Metonic cycle.12
The number 6, , has the same form as the common verb T, TAy, ‘to take’.
A horizontal stroke to indicate a unit of four formed the shape of the hieratic and demotic figures

7( ) and 8 ( ).
The shape of the demotic number 9 goes back to its hieratic form of the New Kingdom and,
allowing for changes in direction of writing, this shape can still be discerned in ‘9’.13 Exactly the
same sign, , designates the planet Venus in P. Berlin 8279 and in the horoscopic ostraca of
Medinet Madi, because of the link between the Egyptian word for ‘nine’, psD, psD.t (also
‘Ennead’) and the verb psD ‘to shine’, that refers to the bright appearance of pA-Ntr-twA, Venus
().14

7
M.A. Stadler, Einführung in die ägyptische Religion ptolemäisch-römischer Zeit nach dem demotischen religiösen
Texten (Berlin, 2012), p.167.
8 Stadler, Isis, das göttliche Kind und die Weltordnung, p. 234.
9
Stadler, Isis, das göttliche Kind und die Weltordnung, p.236-237, P. Berlin 23057, frag. a, l.x+8.
10
CDD_I, p.75, iwv, Mag. P. London-Leiden, col. VIII, l.6.
F.Ll. Griffith, ‘The Glosses in the Magical Papyrus of London and Leiden’, ZÄS 46 (1909-1910), p.127.
11
J. Dieleman, Priests, Tongues, and Rites. The London-Leiden Magical Manuscripts and Translation in Egyptian
Ritual (100-300 CE) (Leiden & Boston, 2005), p. 103-143.
e.g. M. Ross, ‘An Introduction to the Horoscopic Ostraca of Medînet Mâdi’, EVO 29 (2006), p. 168: OMM 960,
Greek ostracon with demotic horoscope, date and time.
12
O. Neugebauer & A. Volten, ‘Untersuchungen zur antiken Astronomie IV: Ein demotischer astronomischer
Papyrus (Pap. Carlsberg 9)’, Quellen und Studien zur Geschichte der Mathematik, Astronomie und Physik, Band 4
(Berlin, 1937), p.386, & passim, where 3 is read as 4 and vise versa. In Neugebauer & Parker, Egyptian
Astronomical Texts III, p. 220-225, 3 & 4 are read correctly.
On P. Carlsberg 9 as containing the Egyptian version of the Metonic cycle: S.L. de Kloe, The Mundane Houses in
Demotic Sources (in preparation).
13
G. Möller, Hieratische Paleographie II (Leipzig, 1936), p.55: 622, P. Harris H.M., Ramses IV.
14
O. Neugebauer, ‘Egyptian Planetary Texts’, TAPS 32 (1942), part 2 (Philadelphia, 1942), p. 247.
The reading nTr.t ‘goddess’ proposed by M. Ross, ‘Further Horoscopic Ostraca of Medînet Mâdi’, EVO 32 (2009), p.
63 & passim, is incorrect.
For classical names of Venus: A. Bouché-Leclercq, L’Astrologie Grecque (Paris, 1899), p.99.
The ‘finger counting rime’ at the end of some versions of the ‘Ferryman Spell’ 99 of the Book of
the Dead is based on allusions on the grounds of such similarities in sound between verbs and the
pronunciation of the numbers.15 This spell, wherein the deceased appears to prove by reciting the
rime that he knows how to count using his ten fingers, has a predecessor in Utterance 359 of the
Pyramid Texts, as noted in 1922 by Battiscombe Gunn.16 Utterance 359, too, is placed within the
astral celestial sphere, where the ferryman transports the deceased, in this case the king, over the
xA-canal (the ecliptic).17 The king is here said to be m sxn.w ir.t 1r,
translated by Gunn as “in charge(?) of the Eye of Horus”, but sxn.w must be the same word as in
the titles of the two-and-a-half millennia younger astrological handbooks P. Cairo 31222, nA
sxny.w 4pd.t, ‘the Influences of Sothis’ and P. Berlin 8345, nA sxny.w n pA-Ntr-twA, ‘the
Influences of Venus’ and nA sxny.w n 4wgy, ‘the Influences of Mercury’.18

As a final set of arguments for an Egyptian origin of the Hindu-Arabic numerals their connection
with the practice of astrology at their introduction to India and at their further spread to the
Arabic countries and into Europe will be accentuated. The hypothesis will be put forward that
demotic ephemerides formed the means of conveyance of demotic numerals into India.
Two demotic ephemerides, tables to determine the daily positions of the planets to compose a
horoscope, have been found. One on papyrus, P. Berlin 8279, the other on small wooden boards
covered with plaster, the Stobart Tables.
Papyrus Berlin 8279 (height 25.5 cm, length 1.75 m) from the Faiyum can be dated to ‘later than
42 AD (second year of Claudius)’ and gives the positions of the planets Saturn, Jupiter, Mars,
Venus, and Mercury for the years 16 BC to 11 AD (year 14 to year 41 of the reign of
Augustus).19 This, interestingly, covers the year of the birth of Jesus, recalling the story of the
Wise Men.20 The text of the papyrus consists only of demotic numerals, symbols for the signs of
the zodiac and for the planets, and the sign for Hsb.t, ‘regnal year’.
The Stobart Tables, now in the Liverpool Museum, are four thin wooden boards within thicker
frames of 8 x 12 cm, covered with white plaster and text in five columns on both sides of the
boards. The text is, like P. Berlin 8279, mainly composed of demotic numerals to give the
positions of the planets during series of years in the reigns of the Roman emperors Vespasian,
Trajan and Hadrian. The signs of the zodiac have slightly different symbols and the names of the
five planets are written out: 1r-pA-kA/Saturn, 1r-St/Jupiter, 1r-tS/Mars, pA-Ntr-twA/Venus, and
4bk/Mercury. The tables were bought in Egypt in 1853 or 1854 by ‘the Rev. Henry Stobart’
together with the papyrus, now in the British Museum, P. Londiniensis 98, containing an

15
K. Sethe, ‘Ein altägyptischer Fingerzählreim’, ZÄS 54 (1918), p.16-39; p.26.
16
Battiscome Gunn “Finger-Numbering in the Pyramid Texts”, ZÄS 57 (1922), p.71-72.
17
For the identification of the xA-canal as the ecliptic: R. Krauss, Astronomische Konzepte und Jenseitsvorstellungen
in den Pyramidentexten, ÄA 59 (Wiesbaden, 1997), p.14-66.
18
GR. Hughes, ‘A Demotic Astrological Text’, JNES 10 (1951), p. 256-264, pl. 10.
G.R. Hughes, ‘An Astrologer’s Handbook in Demotic Egyptian’, in Lesko, L.H. (ed.), Egyptological Studies in
Honor of Richard A. Parker (Hanover/London, 1986), p. 53-69.
19
Neugebauer & Parker, Egyptian Astronomical Texts III, p.228-232, pl. 71-73
Neugebauer, ‘Egyptian Planetary Texts’, p.211.
20
F. von Oefele explained in 1903 the Star of Bethlehem, as Kepler apparently had done, as the ‘great conjunction’
of Jupiter and Saturn in Aries, indicated in P. Berlin 8279: ‘Die Angaben der Berliner Planetentafel P 8279
verglichen mit der Geburtsgeschichte Christi im Berichte Matthäus’, Mitteilungen der Vorderasiatischen
Gesellschaft 2, 8. Jahrgang (1903), p.1-45; F. von Oefele, ‘Astrologisches in der altägyptischen Medizin’, ZÄS 41
(1904), p.117-151.
elaborate Greek horoscope and the ‘Old Coptic Horoscope’.21 That the ‘Old Coptic Horoscope’
was not written in demotic indicates that the Stobart Tablets, that formed part of the same
‘astrologer’s kit’, were in use by someone not necessarily raised within the demotic scribal
tradition.22
Demotic ephemerides like P. Berlin 8279 or the Stobart Tables will have travelled to India,
where they would have been easier in use than the Greek planetary tables with sexagesimal
alphabetic numerals, such as the examples from Oxyrhynchus or Ptolemy’s Handy Tables.23
Ptolemy mentions, in Tetrabiblos I.20, that he consults an Egyptian manuscript to determine the
values of the ‘terms’, so this manuscript was also mainly composed of numerals. This will have
been a papyrus similar to P. CtYBR 1132.24 The terms, indicated in Greek letters on the Tabula
Bianchini and the Tablettes de Grand, play, with their Greek-Indian name ‘horās’, a significant
role in Indian astrology, as do the Egyptian decans, the ‘drekāṇas’.25 In the Yavanajātaka both
groups of astral entities are colorfully described.26 The twelve Egyptian animals of the
dodekaoros, depicted on the Tabula Bianchini and the Disk of Daressy travelled even further
east, to become the twelve animals of Chinese astrology.27 Hellenistic astrological texts reached
India and they included in all likelihood ephemerides and tables of terms composed of demotic
numerals.
The first mentioning of the Indian ‘nine numbers’ is in a letter by the seventh century Syrian
bishop Severus Sēbōkt.28 The letter in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, written in 662 AD,
is part of a manuscript together with several other texts: treatises on the astrolabe and on the
constellations by the same author, a Syrian translation of Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos, and other
letters. In the letter of about five pages the achievements of the Syrians, who are equated with the
Chaldeans, are favorably compared to those of the Greeks. The astrological aspects (opposition,
triangle, quadrat, sextil, and conjunction) as well as the  (astrologers) are put
forward, thereby placing the nine numbers within an astrological context.
Seen as a significant step for the introduction of the Indian numerals to the Arabs is the visit in
771 or 773 of Indian ambassadors to the caliph of Baghdad, bringing a gift of an Indian

21
O. Neugebauer & H.B. van Hoesen, Greek Horoscopes (Philadelphia, 1959), p.28-38.
F. Ll. Griffith, ‘The Old Coptic Horoscope of the Stobart Collection’, ZÄS 38 (1900), p. 71-85, pls. 1-3.
(On the verso of P. Lond. 98 is the ‘Funeral Oration of Hyperides’.)
J. Černý, P.E. Kahle & R.A. Parker, ‘The Old Coptic Horoscope’, JEA 43 (1957), p. 86-100, pls. 11-12.
22
T. Barton, Ancient Astrology (London/New York, 1994), p. 132: “an astrologer’s kit”.
23
A. Tihon, ‘Les Tables faciles de Ptolémée: une edition critique’ in Ch. Burnett, J.P. Hogendijk, K. Plofker & M.
Yano (eds.), Studies in the Exact Sciences in Honour of David Pingree (Leiden/Boston, 2004), p.223-246
24
Ptolemy (F.E. Robbins ed. & trans.), Tetrabiblos (London/Camebridge, Massachusetts, 1940), p. 102-103.
L. Depuydt, ‘A Demotic Table of Terms’, Enchoria 21 (1994), p.1-9, pl.1.
B. Bohleke, ‘In Terms of Fate: a survey of the indigenous Egyptian contribution to ancient astrology in light of
Papyrus CtYBR inv. 1132(B)’, SAK 23 (1996), p. 11-46, pl.1.
The unpublished P. Carlsberg 89 also contains a table of terms.
25
Tabula Bianchini & Tablettes de Grand: J.-H. Abry (ed.), Les Tablettes Astrologiques de Grand (Vosges) et
l'Astrologie en Gaule Romaine (Lyon, 1993), pl. VI & VII.
D. Pingree, ‘The Indian Iconography of the Decans and Horas’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 26
(1963), p.223-254.
26
Pingree, Yavanajātaka II, horās: p.11-15; drekāṇas: p.15-19.
27
F. Boll, Sphaera. Neue griechische Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der Sternbilder (Leipzig, 1903),
p.325-346.
28 E. Reich, ‘Ein Brief des Severus Sēbōkt’ in M. Folkerts & R. Lorch, Sic Itur ad Astra. Fs Paul Kunitzsch

(Wiesbaden, 2000), p. 478-489.

astronomical/astrological handbook, Siddhānta, which was translated in Arabic.29 The famous
astrologer Abu Ma‘šar, a little later, used the translation of the Brahma (sphuta-)Siddhānta as a
source, so the first dispersion of the Indian numerals in the Arabic cultural sphere was connected
with astrology.30
The oldest attestation of East Arabic numerals is, by the way, only in the year number 260 AH
(873/4 AD) in an Egyptian papyrus.31
When, via Spain, the West Arabic or Ghubār (‘dust’) numerals, around the year 1000, find their
way to Europe, they are associated with Gerbert d’Aurillac, who was head of the cathedral
school of Reims before he became Pope Sylvester II. He gained notoriety for practicing
astrology and was nicknamed Nectanebo, after the 30th Dynasty king of Egypt, the astrologer in
the Romance of Alexander.32 With Gerbert even the introduction of the Hind-Arabic numerals to
Europe can be seen within the light of their primary functionality of conveying astrological data.

29
P. Kunitzsch, ‘Zur Geschichte der ‘arabischen’ Ziffern’, Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, philosophisch-
historische Klasse, Sitzungsberichte, Jahrgang 2005, Heft 3, p.7.
30
F. Sezgin, Geschichte des Arabischen Schrifttums V (Leiden, 1974), p.274.
31
P. Kunitzsch, ‘The Transmission of Hindu-Arabic Numerals econsidered’ in J.P. Hogendijk & A.I. Sabra (eds.),
The Enterprise of Science in Islam (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2003), p.5. Papyrus PERF 789.
32
D. Juste, Les Alchandreana primitifs. Étude sur les plus anciens traités astrologiques latins d’origine arabe (Xe
siècle) (Leiden/Boston, 2007), p.255-256.
Figure 1: ‘Family tree of Hindu-Arabic numerals’ based on B.L. van der Waerden & M. Folkerts, Written Numbers
(Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, 1976), p.53 with the late hieratic and demotic numerals added and the lines of
relationship before the ‘Gwalior Inscription’ altered. The late hieratic numerals are taken over from G. Möller,
Hieratische Paleographie III (Leipzig, 1936), p.59 (Leinwand 614-622).
The demotic numerals are intended to represent the forms in M.A. Stadler, Isis, das göttliche Kind und die
Weltordnung (Vienna, 2004), p.333-334, but, since those numerals are ‘rubricated’, the corresponding shapes among
the demotic numerals from the Roman Period in W. Erichsen, Demotisches Glossar (Copenhagen, 1954), p.694-699
(Zahlen) and p.25 (iwv) have been chosen.