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The Bakhshali manuscript, discovered in Pakistan in 1881, contains dot symbols that were used as a placeholder for zero in mathematical calculations between 224 AD and 383 AD, predating Brahmagupta’s text. Other ancient cultures also used similar symbols.
Indian astronomer and mathematician Brahmagupta is often credited with writing the first text that used zero as a symbol in mathematical calculations, in AD 628. However, recent carbon dating results of an ancient text called the Bakhshali manuscript indicate that the concept of zero, in the form of dot symbols, was already used centuries earlier. Researchers at the University of Oxford have established that some pages of the Bakhshali manuscript were engraved between 224 AD and 383 AD
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The Bakhshali manuscript was unearthed in a farmer’s field in 1881, in a farming village which is now part of Pakistan. It is a mathematical text composed of 70 birch bark leaves.
The dot symbol was called shunya-bindu, literally “the dot of the empty place.” It was used as a placeholder, noting the absence of value, for example distinguishing between 1, 10 and 100.
Other ancient cultures used similar placeholder symbols. The Babylonians used a double wedge in cuneiform symbols 5,000 years ago, and the Mayans used a conch shell to indicate absence in their calendar system.
