History of Hindu Mathematics: A Source Book v1.c7.s12.56

v1.c7.s12.56

The teacher points out the first zero on the right and says 'units', then he proceeds to the next zero saying 'tens' and so on. The student repeats the names after the teacher. This practice of denoting the notational places by zeros can be traced back to the time of Bhâskara I, who, as already pointed out on page 66, in his commentary on the *Âryabhaṭîya*, *Gaṇita-pâda*, 2, says :