Thread by @KS1729

A short thread on the Katapayadi schema which I mention in the essay below, wherein numbers are concealed/correlated in words. Hiding numbers in words, traditional cryptology, transmuting words into numbers — all have a long & obscure history. Katapayadi is one such system.

https://twitter.com/ks1729/status/1172474270112505857

But first, let’s talk about sex.

Per the Kamasutra, among the 64 arts a courtesan ought to know: 45th is “secret writing” [‘mlechchita-vikalpa’]

Two types exist: one, is called ‘kautilyam’ (letter substitutions), another is ‘muladeviya’ (interchange a for k, t and p etc).

I had learnt the Katapayadi schema as a child in my obligatory Carnatic music lessons. In it 7-note “main” ragas were arranged thus [see image].

Then, I forgot about it all, till recently.

Amusing how one’s past hides in the bushes, awaiting an opportunity to reappear.

First order of business

1. What is ‘Katapayadi’ schema?

* Sanskrit alphabets ka, ta, pa, ya etc. are used to denote numbers.

2. What are the rules?

* unattached vowels have a value of 0.

* vowels attached to consonants have no value.

* only 33 consonants have value.

3. When did this schema begin?

Per tradition this specific schema was born around 4th century C.E. And is attributed to Vararuchi, a Sanskrit scholar/astronomer from the Chandragupta Vikramaditya courts, but ends up being a key figure in Kerala’s folklore.

Why? It’s unclear.

Another interesting socioeconomic story about Vararuchi that my father’s older sister (herself named after a math text! Lilavati) told me:

[read about ‘Lilavati’ from the American Math Association maa.org/press/periodic…]

Digression # 1

The learned scholar Vararuchi and an ‘untouchable’ woman were a couple; and together they had 13 children. Every time she would give birth, he would ask: “does this child have a mouth”. She would reply: “yes”.

Vararuchi would reply: “abandon the child, for if he has a mouth, he’ll figure out a way to survive in this world”. Thus they abandoned 12 of them who were raised by 12 different families — a Brahmin, a Muslim, a weaver etc

The 13th child couldn’t speak. They raised this child.

Among these children was a Sisyphean fellow called Naranthe Bhranthan — Narayana the Frenzied, who insisted on rolling a boulder up a hill, throwing it down, watching it tumble. Like us with our phones, he did this ad nauseum, ad infinitum.

Digression #2.

Mid 1500s, when our village-family temple was built, the Goddess Durga’s vigraha within was a bit wobbly and refused to sit still every time the prayers were offered. The elders of the village reached out to Narayana who was passing by to help with this quandary.

Kind of pissed off that his splendidly useless time wandering had been interrupted by this bourgeois ritual nonsense, Naranthe Bhranthan spat out the betel nut paste he was chewing and in a hurry, affixed the Goddess on top of that red pasty adhesive, brim with spit & narcotic.

Durga, ever so assertive, protested at feeling soiled. Listening to her, he told her to still inside the santcum sanctorum till he returned with something better to help affix her to the temple grounds. Till then she was to look after kindly the families in my ancestral village.

She, like many Gods, knew little about how humans & devotees scheme, trusted Naranthe Bhranthan, sat inside the garbagriha and began to wait for him. Naranthe Bhranthan never returned, busy as he was rolling the boulder. It’s been centuries since she began to wait.

Our temple.

Back to the Katapayadi schema:

This schema has a long tradition — particularly within Indian astronomy where ‘chandravakya’ [chronograms] helps us calculate the Moon’s longitudes on different days.

Sankara Varman, another mathematician, in 1830 describes this schema.

Thus, a word like *aayurarogyasaukham* [life, health, & welfare] — a phrase Narayana Bhattathiri uses in his Sanskritic verse marvel Narayaneeyam — is split into:

aa - 0
Yu - 1
Ra - 2
Ro - 2
Gya - 1
Sau - 7
Khyam - 2

Then, read from right to left:
aayurarogyasaukham = 2712210

Professors K. Ramasubramanian and
M.S. Sriram in their extraordinary book on Tantrasangraha by Nilakantha Somayaji (by Springer/Hindustan Book Agencies), offer up some examples and exercises.

In the above essay for @Openthemag that I had originally tweeted, a nice little detail on how Katapayadi schema was used to identify the date of composition of the Tantrasangraha that Profs KR & MSS write. I summarize it here:

Indian scientific history, esp astronomy/math, is fascinating. It is a collective heritage & so much work remains to be done. More people should study it, build on works of giants like Bibhutibhushan Datta, A.N. Singh, K. V. Sarma, K. S. Shukla, B. V. Subbarayappa & others.

Hope you enjoyed this.

One of these days, will do a thread on a system of hiding numbers within words called Bhutasankhya (translated loosely as, spectral number), or as my aunt used to say: The Numbers that Ghosts Love.