خلاصه ماشینی:
Al• Biruni complains that the Hindus themselves have no clear-cut ideas on the subject, which could be stated with scientific precision, and their enumeration is often vague and inconsistent.
According to the popular view the hierarchy of spir• itual beings is headed by the Devas, a word which Al• Biruni translates by "Angels," but which may mote correctly be translated as "gods.
Al-Biruni recognises that Arabic numerals were derived from the finest forms of Hindu numerals.
He admired the comprehensive nomenclature of the Hin" dus as regards figures higher than a thousand, for example, Laksha (Iakh), Prayuta (ten lakhs), Koti (crore), with ten more orders of higher numerals to follow2• A number of curious customs are described by Al• Biruni from his own personal observations, which seemed to him so monstrous as to be a sign of " the innate per• versity of Hindu nature.
Then will come again the Golden Age ; and the cycle -of four Yu gas_ -~e repeated for ever3• In all the mass of confused Hindu chronology, Al• Biruni, in order to take a standard for comparison and fix up some of the dates and eras used in Indian reckon• ing, adopted the 400th year of the Persian era of Yazdejerd, as it had a figure of even hundreds and corresponded roughly with the decease of Mahmud Ghaznavi, "the pattern of a prince, the lion of the world, the wonder of his time4.