“ Gopi bhaagya madhu vraata/ Shrngisho dadhisandhiga/ Khalajivita khaataava/ Galahaataarasandhara.”
This is apparently a hymn in the praise of Lord Vishnu.
For your astonishment, it gives the value of π (Pi) to the 32 decimal places as 3.1415926535897932384626433832792.
Ancient Indian mathematicians used a representation of numbers using alphabets known as Katopayadhi. A number was encoded using consonant groups of the Sanskrit alphabet, and vowels were provided as additional latitude to the author in poetic composition. The coding is as follows:-
[ka, ta, pa, ya = 1], [kha, tha, pha, ra = 2], [ga, da, ba, la = 3], [gha, dha, bha, va = 4],
[gna, na, ma, scha = 5], [cha, ta, sha = 6], [chha, tha, sa = 7], [ja, da, ha = 8], [jha, dha = 9], [ksha = 0].
Thus pa pa is 11, ma ra is 52. Words kapa, tapo, pipa, and yupa all mean the same
that is 11. It was upto the author to choose one that fit the meaning of the verse well.
If we replace each letter of the hymn by corresponding number from the table according to Katopayadhi, we will get 3141… etc
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