Devanagari Digit Two

Use a Devanagari keyboard or transliteration output.

Choose the Devanagari layout before typing. A transliteration keyboard turns Latin-letter spellings into Devanagari; set its output to that script. The Latin 2 key alone enters a different character.

What does २ mean in Hindi?

In Hindi and other languages written in Devanagari, २ means two.

In २०, २ supplies two tens, so the whole number is twenty.

Choosing २ keeps the number in Devanagari, matching the script of the surrounding text.

Where did २ come from?

It developed through several stages of Indian numeral writing.

Brahmi, an early Indian script, is attested in cave inscriptions and on coins around the middle of the third century BCE. Its numeral forms changed through the Gupta period, a dynasty in northern India, and into Nāgarī numerals, which began developing around the seventh century CE.

Early Brahmi used separate signs for many values rather than place value, where a digit's position marks ones, tens, hundreds, and more. Later Indian numerals adopted decimal place value. Nāgarī numerals entered the tradition carried into the Arabic world, while other Indic scripts developed distinct digit sets.