10 in Sinhala Illakkam
The distinct archaic ten sign.
HISTORICAL · DECIMAL WITH MULTIPLIERS
Sinhala Illakkam
Unit and tens signs combine with hundred and thousand multipliers.
Convert numbers- Place
- Sri Lanka
- Period / variant
- Archaic numerals · in use before 1815
EXAMPLES
42 · Decimal with multipliers
40 + 2, combining a tens sign and a unit sign.
Worked example
Write 42 in Sinhala Illakkam
Read from left to right. A coefficient before a power sign multiplies that sign; groups with no value are left out.
Write the dedicated 40 sign. It contributes 40; no multiplier or zero is needed.
Finish with the 2 sign for the remaining 2 ones.
Check
40 + 2 = 42
Meet the symbols
Each tile shows a sign and what it means. A sign can stand for a whole amount, such as 10 or 100.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 20
- 30
- 40
- 50
- 60
- 70
- 80
- 90
- 100
- 1,000
How the symbols fit together
Read left to right. A small number before a hundred or thousand sign tells you how many hundreds or thousands to count.
- For 1,987, the thousand sign alone contributes 1,000. The leading one is understood, so it is not written.
- Next, nine before the hundred sign means nine hundreds: 9 × 100 = 900.
- The eighty sign contributes 80, and the seven sign contributes 7.
- Add 1,000 + 900 + 80 + 7 = 1,987. Missing amounts are omitted: 2,010 uses two × thousand, then ten, with no zero placeholders.
42 in Sinhala Illakkam
40 + 2, combining a tens sign and a unit sign.
90 in Sinhala Illakkam
A single sign stands for ninety.
101 in Sinhala Illakkam
100 + 1. The leading one before hundred is omitted, as in the source chart.
222 in Sinhala Illakkam
2 × 100 + 20 + 2; shown in the Sri Lankan standards proposal.
1987 in Sinhala Illakkam
1,000 + 9 × 100 + 80 + 7; shown in the source chart without a leading one.
2010 in Sinhala Illakkam
2 × 1,000 + 10. No zero placeholders; shown in the source chart.
There is no zero sign: empty groups are omitted. This converter supports 1–9,999 using the composition shown in the Sri Lankan standards proposal. Larger forms are not implemented. Sinhala Lith Illakkam is a separate, positional system.
History
Sinhala Illakkam survives in royal documents and artifacts, including material from the Kandyan period. Sri Lankan research distinguished this non-positional set from the zero-bearing astrological numerals called Lith Illakkam.
How to read it
Read left to right. A small number before a hundred or thousand sign tells you how many hundreds or thousands to count.
- For 1,987, the thousand sign alone contributes 1,000. The leading one is understood, so it is not written.
- Next, nine before the hundred sign means nine hundreds: 9 × 100 = 900.
- The eighty sign contributes 80, and the seven sign contributes 7.
- Add 1,000 + 900 + 80 + 7 = 1,987. Missing amounts are omitted: 2,010 uses two × thousand, then ten, with no zero placeholders.
Limits
There is no zero sign: empty groups are omitted. This converter supports 1–9,999 using the composition shown in the Sri Lankan standards proposal. Larger forms are not implemented. Sinhala Lith Illakkam is a separate, positional system.
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