Sanskrit astronomy was transmitted in metric verse — every text had to fit a strict syllable count and stress pattern, recitable aloud. So how do you put a number like 4,320,000 (the mahayuga, Aryabhata's basic cosmic period) into a poem? In 499 CE, Aryabhata's answer was an alphanumeric code: each consonant a digit, each vowel a power of 100. The 7-digit constant compresses to three syllables — *khyughṛ* — recitable inside a śloka. Indian astronomers used the code continuously for the next thousand years.