Wonder if that was a detriment rather than an achievement. Or possibly both?
We can represent all these using a common notation. Imagine if you had to learn hundreds of names for each denominator, and after that, you don't have them all! Calculation becomes very difficult with specific names like this...
May be not...our tradition was 'sruthi, smrithi'....sound and relating a sound to a concept makes it easy to remember and relate. Our older generation used to multiply big numbers mentally, but our generation depends on calculator.
I used to think I am smart, when i didnt read tables for my exams during schools and calculate it during exams. But today if I want to know what is 16X15, I look for a calculator.
So having a specific name for things makes it easy to remember and relate.
How will you denote this in current system and make other understand what you are talking about??? 1/2323824530227200000000
For our ancestors, it was simple..just one word. தேர்த்துகள் and both parties will know what they are talking about, without even writing it down.
Vedas were never written down, till the europeans came in. Ganabadigal....would be able to recite the entire veda upside down..literally..but today..today while reciting any sloka if I forget one syllable, without the book I will not be able to proceed.
my two pence...
Used to remember an incident...when i was in the US. while in a queue at an eatery, an elderly person was before me and i think he had a bill of $10.61. He gave a 10$ and 1$ note and while the young lady was searching for change based on what her computer told her to give, this gentleman, wanting to help her, gave her 11cents, so that she can easily pick up 50c and return to him, instead of 39c. The lady got totally confused and did not know what to do. It delayed the process further and the old man was laughing like anything.
We have lost all thousand year knowledge of weights and measures in one generation. Sombu, marakkal, palam and many more measures commonly used by vegetable vendors, grocery shops and oil mandis are all gone from use and from records. How the 'illiterate' (by our standards) traders did complex sums - mukkal moonu vesam and araiya araikal - and non decimal currency. I too had a similar experience. The cashier in a japanese business hotel did the calculations with an electronic calculator, and immediately cross checked it with abacus. sampath