The existence of Sinhala numerals was a heritage that was hitherto not known to most Sinhala users, other than to specific groups. ICTA, in partnership with Theekshana, of the University of Colombo School of Computing, carried out research on Sinhala numerals from linguistic, mathematical and historical perspectives.
Shapes of several numeral sets which belong to Indic languages were compared with the numeral sets which were identified as numerals or numerations in the Sinhala language. The Indic numerals sets which were studied extensively were Thai, Lao, Burmese, and Malayalam numerals. Five main types of numerals were found to have been used:
a. Sinhala numerals.
b. Lith Illakkam (ලිත් ඉලක්කම්) or ephemeris numerals.
c. Katapayadiya.
d. Swara. (ස්වර)
e. Bhootha anka.
The results of the research were presented at the National Archeology Symposium held on 7th and 8th July 2009, and are published in the Symposium’s proceedings. The consensus is that two sets of numerals should be encoded:
a. The Lith Illakkam comprising numerals from zero to nine. These had been used even in the 20th century.
b. Sinhala Illakam - these had not been generally in use since 1815.
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