Kum Meenakshi wins Karnataka State level Abacus competition

By Anil Alva
Bellevision Media Network

Karakala, 19 February 2011: Kum. Meenakshi, daughter of Panchayat Development Officer of Belle Grama Panchayat-Ramappa Hitthalmani and Mrs. Jayshri recently won first position  in the second division of the Karnataka State level Aloha (Abacus) competition that was held at Bangalore recently. Kum. Meenakshi is the student of the Government Composite PU College, Bailoor in the Karkala taluk studying in the ninth standard.

 

 

Kum. Meenakshi                                        Ramappa Hitthalmani

The abacus, also called a counting frame, is a calculating tool used primarily in parts of Asia for performing arithmetic processes. Today, abaci are often constructed as a bamboo frame with beads sliding on wires, but originally they were beans or stones moved in grooves in sand or on tablets of wood, stone, or metal. The abacus was in use centuries before the adoption of the written modern numeral system and is still widely used by merchants, traders and clerks in Asia, Africa and elsewhere. The user of an abacus is called an abacist.

 

First century sources, such as the ‘Abhidharmakosa’ describe the knowledge and use of abacus in India. Around the 5th century, Indian clerks were already finding new ways of recording the contents of the Abacus. Hindu texts used the term shunya (zero) to indicate the empty column on the abacus.

 

Around the world, abaci have been used in pre-schools and elementary schools as an aid in teaching the numeral system and arithmetic. In Western countries, a bead frame similar to the Russian abacus but with straight wires and a vertical frame has been common. It is still often seen as a plastic or wooden toy.