The Value of Pi upto 32 Decimals from the Vedas

Men of older generation used to say that all knowledge is there in the Vedas. Anyone who hears such words will have the first reaction that it is an exaggeration. We should remember here that any sloka in the ancient Hindu manuscripts has more than one meaning.


A Sloka in the 10th book of Rig Veda appears to be written for praising Lord Indra. The technical translation of that Sloka gives the value of Pi up to 28 digits accurately. It is not until the invention of the computers that the western mathematicians could get this value up to 16 digits accurately. Here is a test for those who think that a computer can do any calculation. Use the fastest computer available to you and write a program to calculate the value of Pi up to 28 digits accurately. You will know how difficult it is.

Vedic Numerical Code in the Vedas

In Sanskrit, the following Vedic Numerical code was used in many slokas

कादि नव
टादि नव
पादि पञ्चक
यद्यश्टक
क्ष शुन्यम्

“Kaadi nava
Taadi nava
Paadi panchaka
Yadyashtaka
Kshah sunyam”

Meaning:

Kaadi Nava Starting from ka, the sequence of 9 letters represent 1,2,..9
Similarly Taadi Nava , starting from ta
Paadi panchaka (1-5), starting from pa
Yadyashtaka (1-8) starting from ya
And ksha represents 0

In detail it is as follows:

ka (क) – 1, kha (ख) – 2, ga (ग) – 3, gha (घ) – 4,gna (ङ) – 5, cha (च) – 6, cha (छ) – 7, ja (ज) – 8, jha (झ) – 9
ta (ट) – 1, tha (ठ) – 2, da (ड) – 3, dha (ढ) – 4,~na (ण) – 5, Ta (त) – 6, Tha (थ) – 7, Da (द) – 8, Dha (ध) – 9
pa (प) – 1, pha (फ) – 2, ba (ब) – 3, bha (भ) – 4,ma (म) – 5
ya (य) – 1, ra (र) – 2, la (ल) – 3, va (व) – 4, Sa (श) – 5, sha (ष) – 6, sa (स) – 7, ha (ह) – 8
kshah (क्ष) – 0.

Based on this code there are many slokas in mathematics., e.g., the following is a sloka for Pi value:

गोपीभाग्य मधुव्रातः श्रुंगशोदधि संधिगः |
खलजीवितखाताव गलहाला रसंधरः ||

gopeebhaagya maDhuvraathaH shruMgashodhaDhi saMDhigaH
khalajeevithakhaathaava galahaalaa rasaMDharaH

ga-3, pa-1, bha-4, ya -1, ma-5, Dhu-9, ra-2, tha-6, shru-5, ga-3, sho-5, dha-8, Dhi -9, sa-7, Dha- 9, ga-3, kha-2, la-3, jee-8, vi-4, tha-6, kha-2, tha-6, va-4, ga-3, la-3, ha-8, la-3, ra-2, sa-7, Dha-9, ra-2

3.1415926535897932384626433832792…

The above sloka has actually 3 meanings
1. In favor of Lord Shiva
2. In favor of Lord Krishna
3. The value of Pi up to 32 decimals.

There were many inventions in the field of science and technology in ancient India, we just have to sift through the sands of time to find them.