Malayalam digit five

Their signs derive from Grantha, another South Indian script. The system is structurally related to Tamil numerals and other South Indian systems rooted in Brahmi, an older script tradition. Before AD 1000, a few inscriptions distinctly in Malayalam show that its decimal system, combining multiplication and addition, was already formed.

These numerals served measurement and calculation. By the mid-nineteenth century, European contact had introduced zero and positional notation, where a digit’s place determines its value. The old Malayalam numerals later became rare and were used mainly to read historical texts.