Unicode Block - Sinhala Archaic Numbers

Sinhala Archaic Numbers is a set of sixty numerical signs and symbols used in historical Sinhala documents, primarily for accounting, land records, and astrological texts, with values ranging from fractions like 1/4 and 1/20 up to large denominations such as 100,000 and 900,000. These characters, which also include a distinct symbol for zero and special marks for multiplying by twenty, were derived from ancient Sri Lankan palm-leaf manuscripts and later copperplate inscriptions, reflecting a unique numeral system that predates the widespread adoption of Arabic numerals in the region. Though largely obsolete in modern usage, they are preserved for scholarly and digital heritage purposes, allowing researchers to accurately transcribe and encode old Sinhala sources without losing the original numerical context.