Where 108 appears
Few numbers recur as often in South Asian religious life as 108. A traditional mala, the string of beads used to count recitations of a mantra or name, usually has 108 beads plus a larger “guru” bead where the count begins and ends. Hindu temples may recite 108 names of a deity in a litany. Some Buddhist temples in East Asia ring a bell 108 times at the turn of the year. Lists of 108 sacred sites, texts and attributes turn up across Hindu, Buddhist and Jain traditions.
“Dharmic” is a convenient modern grouping for religions that arose in India, mainly Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. They do not share one doctrine, and 108 is not used identically in all of them. Nor is there a single agreed reason for the number. What follows are the explanations that traditions or later commentators have offered, with a note on how well supported each seems to be.
The mala and its counting
The practice of repeating a mantra or name a fixed number of times is old, and counting on beads is a practical way to avoid losing track while the mind is on the recitation. A 108-bead mala allows a practitioner to complete one round; many people then count several rounds. Shorter malas of 54 or 27 beads, which divide 108 evenly, are also common, as are strings of other lengths used by particular schools. Beads used for counting prayer exist in other religions too, as seen in the history of prayer beads, and the shared logic is simply tracking repetition.
The mala explains how 108 is used. It does not by itself explain why 108 was chosen.
Reasons that traditions and writers give
Many explanations circulate, and they differ in age and reliability.
- Counted lists. Some Hindu traditions list 108 names of deities, and the Vaishnava tradition has a set of 108 sacred temples known as Divya Desams. A list of 108 canonical Upanishads is also found in a traditional canon, although many scholars identify a smaller group as the principal ones. These lists show that 108 was a favoured size, but a favoured size may have been chosen for the same reasons as the beads.
- Buddhist afflictions or feelings. Some Buddhist traditions speak of 108 defilements, worldly passions or kinds of feeling, and use the number when ringing a bell or counting beads. Different schools derive 108 in different ways, and the sums are not identical across sources.
- The Sanskrit alphabet. A popular explanation says there are 54 letters in the Sanskrit alphabet, each with a masculine and feminine aspect, giving 54 times 2, which is 108. This is a commonly repeated account, but how the letters are counted varies, so it should be treated as one tradition’s reasoning and not as settled.
- Multiples of nine and twelve. Since 108 equals 9 times 12, writers connect it with nine, treated as a complete number in Indian thought, and with twelve, the number of zodiac signs and months. This is an observation about the product more than a historical source.
- Astronomical coincidences. A modern explanation notes that the Sun’s diameter is roughly 109 times that of the Earth, and that the average distance between them is roughly 108 solar diameters. These figures are approximately correct, but there is no evidence that ancient authors measured them, so the explanation is better described as a later observation than as the original reason.
Arithmetic curiosities
108 has some pleasing properties. It is 4 times 27, or 2 squared times 3 cubed. It also equals 1 to the power 1, times 2 to the power 2, times 3 to the power 3, since 1 times 4 times 27 is 108. These facts are fun but they are modern mathematical remarks, and no traditional source is known to have used them as reasons.
The year-end bell and other uses
In Japan, temples commonly ring a large bell 108 times on New Year’s Eve, in a custom called joya no kane. The explanation usually given is that each stroke dispels one of 108 worldly desires or afflictions, and the cycle is meant to begin the new year with a clear mind. Similar bell practices appear elsewhere in East Asian Buddhism. Hindu observances may include 108 repetitions, 108 circumambulations or 108 offerings during certain rites, and these form part of wider ritual numbers in religious custom.
Comparing with other counts
Other traditions use different totals. Islamic prayer counting often draws on the ninety-nine names of God, and Christian rosary practice has its own structure. The totals differ because each community built its practice on its own texts and numbers, and not because any figure is universal. Indian cosmology also uses very large counts, such as the cycles of the Hindu yugas, and 108 sits in the same culture of numbered sets.
Cautions
No single origin of 108 is established. Some explanations are traditional and attached to texts; others are popular accounts that spread through modern books and websites, and the confident tone of such accounts can go beyond what the sources support. For a reader, the safest statement is that 108 became a customary number for counting devotion and for cataloguing sacred things, and that each tradition has offered its own rationale for it. Whether a given number “works” in any spiritual or practical sense is a matter of personal faith and not something history can verify.