An open puzzle · free to enter
The Last Step
In Volume 1, I show every step of decoding my father’s verse except one. I left the last piece of arithmetic out on purpose, because he never handed me answers either. This page is the invitation to finish it.
Stanza 1, as it appears in the book
शून्यं वेदशशीनेत्रसोमबाणनगग्रहेन्दवः । नन्दनन्दाङ्गशून्याग्नित्रिग्रहषट्षडद्रिभिः ॥ १ ॥
Reproduced from Volume 1, Chapter 10
Your task
The second line of this stanza is a run of words that are also numbers. Turn it into numbers and finish the arithmetic. The result is two numbers. Send me both, with a few lines on how you got them.
If you want a warm-up, try the first line first. It is a good test of your method, because its result begins with something you can check.
How to submit
Email humi.xman@gmail.com with the subject The Last Step. Include both numbers, which one is which, and a few lines on how you got there.
Email your answerNo mail app on this device? Copy the address above and send it from any email account. The full rules, including how the first solver is decided, are further down this page.
The style
The verse is written in the style of Bhūta Saṃkhyā: Sanskrit words that stand for numbers, a convention that has been in use for over a thousand years. It is not a code invented for the book. That is all I will tell you here about how to read it. The rest is the puzzle.
Where to look: this whole site is part of the puzzle, so wander. Start with The Sanskrit Page and the Ciphers, and if you want the full walk-through of the first line, it is in Volume 1. The book is optional, but it is the best map there is.
The prize
The first person to send me the two correct numbers, with a few lines on how they got them, will be named on this page, and, if Volume 2 is published, in its acknowledgments.
That is the whole prize. It is not money or goods, and this is not a lottery or a game of chance. It is a name, in the place where a name means something to this book.
To enter, email humi.xman@gmail.com with the subject “The Last Step”.
The rules, plainly
- Free to enter. No purchase is needed. The method can be found on this site and in published sources on Bhūta Saṃkhyā; the book, which shows the worked steps, is optional help.
- What to send. Both numbers, written the way you think they should be written; which one you think is which; and a few lines on how you got there. Email humi.xman@gmail.com with the subject “The Last Step”.
- Who is first. The earliest email, by its timestamp in my inbox, that has both numbers correct and a short explanation. I check every entry myself against my own working, and my decision is final. The second and third correct solvers may also be listed on the Solver’s Wall, if they wish.
- Your name, your choice. I will only publish a name with your written permission, and you decide how it appears: full name, first name, a handle, or simply “a reader”. The Volume 2 mention is subject to the same permission, and only applies if that volume is published.
- Age. You should be 18 or over, or have a parent or guardian’s consent to be named.
- Your email. I use it only to reply to you and to confirm how you want to be named. I do not share it, and I do not add you to any mailing list unless you ask.
- If things change. I may pause or close the puzzle. If a correct solver has already been verified, their naming still stands.
Solver’s Wall
No solver has been verified yet. The first one is named here.
An honest note. Solving this tells you what the numbers are. It does not tell you what they mean, and Volume 1 does not claim they prove anything about where I was born. The book is explicit that this is a question, not an answer. Finishing the arithmetic is the first step in asking it, not the last.