Kannada Digit Eight

It stands for eight in Kannada-script text.

In a number string, its position changes its value: ೮೦ is eighty, while ೨೮ is twenty-eight.

On its own, ೮ still means the number eight; any further meaning depends on the surrounding message.

How did Kannada numerals develop?

They developed through older South Indian writing traditions.

Kannada writing grew from Brahmi, an ancient script, through the Kadamba and Cālukya traditions of southern India. A 2017 report calls the pillar at Gudnapur the earliest inscription reported to show all nine Kannada numerals. It places the carving in the early sixth century, though its date is uncertain.

A book on the study of old writing, published in 1878, calls these the Telugu–Canarese numerals; Canarese was an older English name for Kannada. It traces the set to cursive versions of an older style it calls the Western Cave numerals. The author says the earliest examples he found were on a document from 1087, calls the set common about 1300, and cites a Hala-Kannada (old Kannada) manuscript dated 1428. The book describes figures across the peninsula as nearly identical. The value stayed eight as the written shapes changed.