How Many Zeros in a Mahashankh?
A mahashankh has 19 zeros in the Indian numbering system: 1019 — equal to ten quintillion (10,000,000,000,000,000,000) in the international system. One mahashankh equals 100 shankh, 10,000 padma, or 100 billion crore. The prefix "maha-" means "great" in Sanskrit, making mahashankh literally a "great conch" — the shankh (conch) multiplied a hundredfold. Like the other upper units of the classical Indian scale, mahashankh appears in ancient Sanskrit mathematical texts and cosmological writings rather than in everyday usage. Related: Arab zeros.
A mahashankh has
19
zeros
- Written Form
- 1 followed by 19 zeros
- Scientific
- 10¹⁹
- Western
- 10,000,000,000,000,000,000
How Many Zeros Are in 1 Mahashankh?
One mahashankh has exactly 19 zeros: 1019. The traditional Indian extended scale adds two zeros at each step, so mahashankh has two more zeros than shankh (17 zeros) and two fewer than ank (21 zeros).
| Unit | Zeros | International equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| Shankh | 17 | 100 quadrillion |
| Mahashankh | 19 | 10 quintillion |
| Ank | 21 | 1 sextillion |
Internationally, 1019 falls between quintillion (1018) and sextillion (1021), so mahashankh has no single equivalent English name — it is ten quintillion, or one-hundredth of a sextillion. Learn more about how many zeros does a kharab have.
What Is 100 Mahashankh?
One hundred mahashankh equals one ank (1021), the final unit in the classical extended Indian numbering scale. Since the scale multiplies by 100 at each step, 100 × 1019 = 1021. Ank represents 1 sextillion in the international system — the same order of magnitude as a zettabyte of digital storage. Learn more about crore zeros.
How Does Mahashankh Fit in the Indian Numbering Tradition?
The extended Indian scale above crore was developed in classical Sanskrit mathematics to name quantities needed for astronomical and cosmological calculations — distances between celestial bodies, the lengths of cosmic time cycles (yugas), and the number of grains of sand on the earth. Modern equivalents from the international system now handle these scales, but the Sanskrit names persist in historical and comparative linguistics.
The full upper progression of the classical scale is:
- Arab (109) — 1 billion
- Kharab (1011) — 100 billion
- Neel (1013) — 10 trillion
- Padma (1015) — 1 quadrillion
- Shankh (1017) — 100 quadrillion
- Mahashankh (1019) — 10 quintillion
- Ank (1021) — 1 sextillion