A hundred and eight is the most widely used sacred count in the dharmic traditions, and unlike many such numbers its uses are numerous, specific and independently attested.
The mala, the prayer bead string of Hindu and Buddhist practice, carries a hundred and eight beads plus a larger head bead, and a full recitation is one circuit. Half-malas of fifty-four and wrist malas of twenty-seven divide it. The Japanese juzu follows the same count, and at the New Year the temple bell is struck a hundred and eight times.
The Muktika Upanishad canonises a list of a hundred and eight Upanishads, with the Muktika itself as the hundred and eighth. The constituent texts span an enormous period, and the anthology is late; the canon of a hundred and eight is a later act of collection rather than a Vedic figure.
Sri Vaishnavism counts a hundred and eight Divya Desams, the temples praised in the Nalayira Divya Prabandham of the Alvar poets, composed between roughly the fifth and ninth centuries. Of these, a hundred and six are terrestrial, a hundred and five in India and one in Nepal, and two are celestial, the ocean of milk and Vaikuntha itself. Pilgrims who complete the earthly hundred and six have completed the circuit as far as it can be walked.
Other uses include a hundred and eight names of a deity in the ashtottara shatanamavali form, a hundred and eight steps at various temples, a hundred and eight Shiva temples in particular regional lists, and a hundred and eight marma points in Ayurvedic and martial traditions. The breadth is real, and it is why the number carries the weight it does.