Lexicon of Rig Veda

Lexicon

of Rig Veda

Whatever symbolism of number hundred was, it is evident, that in Veda it uses for some very big number or for full set of something whereas 90 is used for big but incomplete set (as numbers 10 and 9 and 1000 and 900). Sri Aurobindo gave this explanation: “The constantly recurring numbers ninety-nine, a hundred and a thousand have a symbolic significance in the Veda which it is very difficult to disengage with any precision. The secret is perhaps to be found in the multiplication of the mystic number seven by itself and its double repetition with a unit added before and at the end, making altogether 1+49+49+1=100. Seven is the number of essential principles in manifested Nature, seven forms of divine consciousness at play in the world. Each, formulated severally, contains the other six in itself; thus the full number is forty-nine, and to this is added the unit above out of which all develops, giving us altogether a scale of fifty and forming the complete gamut of active consciousness. But there is also its duplication by an ascending and descending series, the descent of the gods, the ascent of man. This gives us ninety-nine, the number variously applied in the Veda to horses, cities, rivers, in each case with a separate but kindred symbolism. If we add an obscure unit below into which all descends to the luminous unit above towards which all ascends we have the full scale of one hundred.” (The Secret of the Veda // CABCL.– Vol. 15– 1998, p. 313.)