Significance of 1 and 8 in Hinduism - Post 1

Link to Post 2 - Link to Significance of 1&8 in Hinduism - Post 2

I was very intrigued from quite some time regarding these 2 numbers – 1 and 8 and what is its connect with Hinduism. In fact it made me very curious esp. when I read the recipe books by Meenakshi Ammal in which she kept using 1/8th measure of a cup, especially for seasoning details in her recipes. It kept coming back to me that she could have used teaspoon (tei karandi in tamil) or table spoon instead of the complicated 1/8th.

Yet again, when I was teaching my elder one history(6^th grade), her text book mentioned that the king Chandragupta Maurya spent 1/8 of his waking hours for each of his activities like art, court, exercise, accounts, army inspection, etc. Again it struck me – why 1 and 8?

And then in one of the Bhagavatam parayanams (maha puranic texts) by Sri Sundara Kumarar, I got my answer! He too mentioned that these numbers 1 and 8 are very significant as there are 18 puranas. In fact there are 18000 verses in the Bhagavatham. Again, there are 18 chapters in the Bhagvad Gita. The Mahabharata war lasted 18 days to emerge victorious. And he went on to explain the significance. In fact, these 2 numbers hint at the most positive word “Jaya” or “jayam” meaning victory.

Alternately, jaya is defined in Anka sastram. Our tradition has a shastra called Katapayadi Sankhya Sastram. This associates numbers to alphabets. According to this shastram, jaya equates to 18. In other words, 1 and 8 can be related to the alphabets in the Sanskrit script. Incidentally the number 1 represents ya and 8 represents ja which ends up with the word “Jaya” meaning victory. Thus जयमुदीरयेत् which has the word जय (jaya) signifies 18. So these numbers are used extensively to attach the positive vibration from the word that it actually relates to.

Hence “jaya” is used both in the 18 puranas and Mahabharath. It is apt to use jaya or jayam for puranas as there are 18 of them and also with Mahabharath as it has 18 parvas and Bhagavad Gita which forms an integral part of Mahabharath is composed of 18 adhayaas (Chapters). Infact the itihasa Mahabhara is sometimes referred to as Jaya also.

More on the Katapayadi sankhya. For all those musicians out there, this is not something new – the katapayadi sankya system (a hash number concept in Sanskrit). Check it out here – http://silpa.org.in/Katapayadi and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katapayadi_system.

According to the Upanishads, a person will breathe 21,600 times a day. It is broken up into two parts, day and night. Therefore, during the day we breathe 10,800 times and at night we breathe 10,800 times. In fact every breath is a ajapa gayatri where inhalation is Saha meaning "He" and exhalation is Aham meaning "Me" leading to the divine being inhaled when the ignorant Me is exhaled, constantly instilling the cosmic energy inside the Self.  

Also, Astronomically, there are 27 constellations in our galaxy, and each one them has 4 directions, and 27 * 4 = 108, In other words the number 108 covers the whole galaxy.

According to Indian scriptures, letter 9 corresponds to Lord Brahma (the creator of universe). Mathematically, the interesting property of 9 is
9 x 1 = 9
9 x 2 = 18 (8+1 = 9)
9 x 3 = 27 (7+2 = 9) and so on...
9 x 12 = 108 (1+0+8 = 9)
 

According to Indian mythology, there are 4 Yugas -

1) Satyug - consists of 172,800 years (1+7+2+8 = 18 = (1+8 = 9)
2) TretaYug consists of 1296000 years (1+2+9+6 = 18 = (1+8 = 9)
3) DwaparYug consists of 864000 years (8+4+6) = 18 = (1+8 = 9)
4) Kaliyug consists of 432000 years (4+3+2) = 9

As you must be aware that there are 27 Nakshatra or Constellations, representing the immediate Universe or our galaxy and each Nakshatra representing various manifestation of God, additionally, each Nakshatra has 4 Pada, representing 4 stage 
(4 Objective- Dharma meaning Right Act, Artha meaning Economic Prosperity, Kama meaning Desire Fulfillment, Moksha meaning Eternal Liberation ).

108 representing total unique combination of all Pada in 27 Nakshatra  (108= 27*4) thus representing offering to all manifestation of God and driving all 4 objectives. 
Accordingly the concept of Jyotish is also built and 9 Planets were thus placed in 12 houses (108 divided by 9 is 12) and of these 12 house or Rashi (Zodiac Sign), 3 each are allocated to Dharma, Arth, Kama, Moksha. 

Thus 108 also represent total unique combination of 3 Guna, 4 Objectives and 9 Planets (3*4*9= 108).