History of Hindu Mathematics: A Source Book v1.c7.s14.8

v1.c7.s14.8

The reader will observe that the literary and non-mathematical works give much earlier instances of the use of the place-value system than the mathematical works. This is exactly what one should expect. The system when invented must have for some time been used only for writing big numbers. A long time must have elapsed before the methods of performing arithmetical operations with them were invented. The system cannot be expected to occur in a mathematical work before it is in a perfect form. Therefore, the evidences furnished by non-mathematical works should, in fact, be earlier than those of mathematical works.