If you look at the source of Math::BigInt.pm, you will find

'**'    =>    sub {new Math::BigInt
               $_[2]? bpow($_[1],${$_[0]}) : bpow(${$_[0]},$_[1])},
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in the operator overload section. This is the operation that I used in a project where I did about the same thing as you are doing.

The docs don't show **, but you should still be able to use it, because it's in the code. Or, you can call bpow(arg1, arg2) directly. :)

--
hiseldl
What time is it? It's Camel Time!