Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c9.s2.t2.5

c9.s2.t2.5

The earliest epigraphic instance of the use of the decimal notation occurs in the Gurjara inscription of the Cedi year 346, or A. D. 595,¹ where the signs (plate IX, B, col. I) are identical with the numeral symbols of the country and of the period (compare the Valabhī column of plate IX, A).² The same remark applies to the 2 in the date of the month of the Cicacole plate mentioned on page 78 above, in which document we find also the later circular cipher and [79] a decimal 8 in the shape of a cursive sign derived from *pu*. Another inscription of the 8th century, the Sāmāṅgaḍ plates of Sakasaṁvat 675, or A. D. 754, offers only strongly modified cursive signs (plate IX, B, col. II.).