At 10:40 am +0200 13/4/99, AVINOAM MANN wrote:
>>> During my recent visit to India, I learned that when writing about large
>> numbers, say in newspaper reports on the budget, they don't use
>> "million", but rather two other numbers: Lakh, which is a hundred
>> thousand, and Crore, which is a hundred lakhs. Does anybody know the
>> history of these units?
>> Avinoam Mann
> "Laksha" is sanscrit meaning 100 000. The word "lacquer" (Lack in
>German) stems
> from this word, since huge numbers of "lacquer" lice sit on the
>"lacquer" tree
> producing what is now called "lacquer". The word came through the Arabs into
> mediavel latin and from there into all the European languages.
>
> My source: Edith M. H. Straesser, Lackkunst. In: Reclams Handbuch der
> kuenstlerischen Techniken. Vol. 3. Stuttgart 1986. pp. 211-293. Here p. 217.
>
> Straesser does not give a source.
>
> The word "lac" meaning the varnish is also in Fibonacci's liber abbaci,
> page 180 in the Boncompagni edition.
>
> That's all I know about Laksha.
>
> Heinz Lueneburg
Both laksha and crore are in the OED, with these meanings and with
quotations going back to 1609. Here is that earliest one
1609 Hawkins in Purchas Pilgrims I. 216 (Y.) The King's yeerely Income of
his Crowne Land is fiftie Crou of Rupias, every Crou is an hundred Leckes.
On the other hand, the OED's fairly complicated etymology of lacquer
doesn't mention Sanscrit:
c. It. lacra, Pg. alacre, laquar (Yule); an unexplained variant or
derivative of Pg. lacca lac. The current form lacquer is influenced app. by
F. laque lac.
David Fowler
(Another relevant mail with a serious-looking reference:
At 1:08 pm -0400 13/4/99, Kim Plofker wrote:
>>During my recent visit to India, I learned that when writing about large
>>numbers, say in newspaper reports on the budget, they don't use
>>"million", but rather two other numbers: Lakh, which is a hundred
>>thousand, and Crore, which is a hundred lakhs. Does anybody know the
>>history of these units?
>>Avinoam Mann
> As Heinz Lueneburg noted, "lakh" is from Sanskrit "laksha".
>Similarly, "crore" is from Sanskrit "koti". These terms for
>10E5 and 10E7 are attested in non-mathematical works in epic and
>dharmasastra literature going back to the first few centuries of
>this era; they seem to have got into Sanskrit scientific texts a few
>centuries later. Cf. Takao Hayashi, _The Bakhshali Manuscript_,
>Gronigen 1995, chapter 6.
>
>Kim Plofker)