Indian Epigraphy c15.t1.13

c15.t1.13

The numerals were written by symbols in the early inscriptions in Brāhmī and Kharoṣṭhī, the signs of the Kharoṣṭhī system being borrowed from the Aramaic alphabet with slight modifications. The decimal system of writing numbers with the figures for 1 to 9 and the cypher with the application of the principle of space value, which is the most convenient system of writing numbers and is now popular all over the world, originated in India, probably in West India amongst the astronomers of the Ujjayinī school, about the 5th century A. D.²