Dear Harry,
I do not know about the auspiciousness of 108. However, the 8 in 108 does have
a special meaning as it does in 18 (books of the Mahābhārata). Following upon
7, which makes a finite, closed list (seventh heaven, seven generations in
some inscriptions), 8 opens it again (with it the speaker/writer indicates that
he could easily go on adding to the list). Thus, 8 rasas ("On the Use of Rasa
in Studies of Sanskrit Drama, IIJ 43 (2000), pp. 115-138) and in some Gupta
inscriptions the kings are praised in 8 stanzas ("Some Literary Embellishments
in the Gupta Inscriptions". ArOr 74/4 (2006), pp. 451-460.
I vaguely remember that Jan Gonda has written about numbers, but am unable to
provide a reference.
Kind regards, Herman
Herman Tieken
Stationsweg 58
2515 BP Den Haag
The Netherlands
00 31 (0)70 2208127
website: hermantieken.com<http://hermantieken.com/>
________________________________
Van: INDOLOGY <[email protected]> namens Jim Ryan via
INDOLOGY <[email protected]>
Verzonden: woensdag 9 februari 2022 21:10
Aan: Harry Spier <[email protected]>
CC: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Onderwerp: Re: [INDOLOGY] Auspicious numbers in Hinduism
Harry,
Thomas McEvilley in his book, The Shape of Ancient Thought discusses a theory
of how a number of the Indian auspicious numbers (including 108) might have
been derived from Sumerian “Processional arithmetic.” This is in Chapter 3, I
think. Especially beginning on p. 293.
Jim Ryan
Asian Philosophies and Cultures (Emeritus)
California Institute of Integral Studies
On Feb 9, 2022, at 11:09 AM, Harry Spier via INDOLOGY
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Dear list members,
Can anyone point me to any studies on auspicious numbers in Hinduism
Thanks,
Harry Spier
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