Dear colleagues,

A collaborator and I are looking to find antecedents for the mathematical practice of using danda-like strokes to indicate fractional parts (1 danda=1/4, 2 dandas = 1/2, 3 dandas = 3/4).

We have found something in the context of representing syllable length in Vedic notation. The only sources we could find concerned a discussion about unicode for "vaidika" symbols, called "vaidika apurnanka pada" (seethe bottom of p. 11 of http://unicode.org/L2/L2007/07396-vaidika.pdf) which appears, it seems, in the context of representing syllable length, to indicate1/4 and 1/2 of a matra kala for a single and double stroke respectively. (I attach a screen shot from a similar discussion about characters below).

Does anyone have any further sources we could consult on this? Was this a widespread notational practise?

Any leads would be greatly appreciated.

With thanks,

Clemency

Dr. Clemency Montelle

Associate Professor

School of Mathematics and Statistics

University of Canterbury | Te Whare Wananga o Waitaha

Private Bag 4800, Christchurch 8140

NEW ZEALAND

http://www.math.canterbury.ac.nz/~c.montelle/

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