Sanskrit Numbers 1–100

Start here if you're new: the first ten numbers are eka, dvi, tri, catur, pañca, ṣaṭ, sapta, aṣṭa, nava, daśa — most of the rest of the system builds directly on these ten words plus the "tens" words (viṃśati for 20, triṃśat for 30, and so on). One thing to know up front: eka, dvi, tri and catur are not fixed spellings — Sanskrit numbers below five change form depending on grammatical gender and case, so a single dictionary form isn't always what you'll see in an actual sentence. This page explains where that matters and where it doesn't.

A note on grammar: these are reference forms, not the only spelling

The single biggest difference between English and Sanskrit numbers: English "two" is always spelled "two." Sanskrit dvi is not always spelled dvi. Numbers 1–4 specifically decline by gender (and by case), so the same number looks different depending on what it's counting:

From five onward, numbers stop varying by gender (though they still take different case endings) — which is exactly why 1–4 get their own callout and this page uses their plain compounding stem (eka, dvi, tri, catur) as the reference form in the main table above, since that's also the form these numbers take when they're the first part of a larger compound like ekādaśa (11) or caturviṃśati (24).

Sanskrit Numbers 1–10

The whole system rests on these ten words — learn them first: eka (1), dvi (2), tri (3), catur (4), pañca (5), ṣaṭ (6), sapta (7), aṣṭa (8), nava (9), daśa (10). Several are recognisable if you already know a related Indo-European language — dvi and "duo," tri and "tri-," nava and "nine," daśa and "decade" all share the same ancient root.

Sanskrit Numbers 11–20

11–18 are formed simply by prefixing the unit to daśa (ten): eka+daśa becomes ekādaśa (11), dvi+daśa becomes dvādaśa (12), and so on through aṣṭādaśa (18) — this is the same "unit + ten" logic as English "four-teen," just built the other way round in places. 16 breaks the pattern: it's ṣoḍaśa, not the mechanically expected "ṣaḍdaśa" — an irregular, lexicalised form that simply has to be memorised. 19 breaks the pattern more dramatically: rather than "nine-teen," Sanskrit commonly uses ekonaviṃśati — literally "one-less-than-twenty," a subtractive construction rather than an additive one. This subtractive pattern (using ūna, "less/deficient") shows up again near several other decade boundaries in classical usage.

Sanskrit Numbers 21–50

20, 30, 40 and 50 each have their own dedicated word — viṃśati (20), triṃśat (30), catvāriṃśat (40), pañcāśat (50) — not built from daśa at all. Numbers in between compound a unit onto the relevant decade word, generally unit-first: pañca+viṃśati gives pañcaviṃśati (25), sapta+catvāriṃśat gives saptacatvāriṃśat (47). The exact join isn't always simple concatenation, though — Sanskrit's sandhi (sound-combination) rules reshape the boundary: ṣaṣ (6) becomes ṣaḍ- before a voiced sound (ṣaḍviṃśati, 26), aṣṭa (8) lengthens to aṣṭā- before several of these decades (aṣṭāviṃśati, 28), and catur (4) shortens its final r to catus- before triṃśat (catustriṃśat, 34). See the full table above for each verified individual form rather than trying to derive them all mechanically.

Sanskrit Numbers 51–100

The remaining decades follow the same compounding logic: ṣaṣṭi (60), saptati (70), aśīti (80), navati (90), and finally śata (100) itself. A genuine grammatical wrinkle worth knowing: for several numbers in the 42–72 range, classical sources record two accepted forms for the "2" and "3" components — dvi can appear as either dvi- or the lengthened dvā- (so 62 is documented as both dviṣaṣṭi and dvāṣaṣṭi), and tri similarly alternates between tri- and trayas-. Neither variant is "wrong" — this is one of the places classical Sanskrit itself preserves more than one accepted form, and grammars like Whitney's explicitly note it rather than picking a single winner. For 99 specifically, alongside the regular compound navanavati, older texts also use the same subtractive logic as 19 — ekonaśata, "one-less-than-a-hundred."

Sanskrit numbers in Panchanga

This is where Sanskrit numerals stop being an abstract list and start mattering for reading a real calendar. Every Tithi (lunar day) in the Panchanga is named using exactly the feminine ordinal numbers above: Pratipada (1st), Dvitiya (2nd), Tritiya (3rd), Chaturthi (4th), Panchami (5th), Shashthi (6th), Saptami (7th), Ashtami (8th), Navami (9th), Dashami (10th), continuing through Ekadashi (11th) to Chaturdashi (14th), before the fortnight closes on Purnima (full moon) or Amavasya (new moon) — names that aren't numerical at all. It's worth being precise here: not every Panchanga term is a disguised number — Yoga and Karana names, for instance, are largely unrelated to the numeral system, even though they're also counted/sequenced concepts. See our Samvatsara page for a different numerical structure entirely — a repeating 60-name cycle rather than an ordinal sequence.

Numbers in Sanskrit dates, years and quantities

Beyond Panchanga terminology, Sanskrit numbers show up wherever a quantity needs naming — ages, counts, years. Writing out a specific year, like 2027, uses exactly the same compounding principles covered above, scaled up: see how to write 2027 in Sanskrit for a fully worked example, or how to write a complete date for day-month-year together. For the traditional year-count systems these numbers eventually plug into, see Vikram Samvat and our Vikram Samvat year converter, or check Sanskrit Calendar Today and Sanskrit Calendar 2027 to see these numbers in active, current use rather than as an abstract list.

Sanskrit digits vs. number words vs. Arabic numerals

These are three different things people sometimes conflate:

1. Sanskrit number words — the actual language: eka, dvi, daśa, and so on. This is what "Sanskrit numerals" properly refers to.
2. Devanagari digits — the numeral symbols (०, १, २, ३...) belonging to the Devanagari script, which is used to write several languages, not just Sanskrit. Hindi, Marathi, Nepali and others use the identical digit shapes.
3. Arabic numerals — the 0–9 digits used internationally in modern digital contexts, including on this website and in everyday Indian usage alongside Devanagari.

It's inaccurate to call Devanagari digits "Sanskrit digits" exclusively — they're a script-level symbol set shared across languages, the same way the Latin alphabet's digits (0–9, technically of Indian—Arabic origin themselves) aren't "English digits." A year like 2027 can correctly be written २०२७ in Devanagari regardless of which Devanagari-script language surrounds it. See how to write 2027 in Sanskrit for exactly this distinction worked through in detail, including how digits, number-words and "the year X" all diverge.