History of Hindu Mathematics: A Source Book v1.c7.s15.9

v1.c7.s15.9

In a theory that was advanced by Woepcke, this divergence is explained by assuming that (1) about the second century after Christ, before zero had been invented, the Hindu numerals were brought to Alexandria, whence they spread to Rome and also to west Africa; (2) that in the eighth century, after the notation in India had been already much modified and perfected by the invention of zero, the Arabs at Baghdad got it from the Hindus; (3) that the Arabs of the west borrowed the Columbus-egg, the zero, from those in the east but retained the old forms of the nine numerals, if for no other reason, simply to be contrary to their political enemies of the east; (4) that the old forms were remembered by the west Arabs to be of Hindu origin, and were hence called *ghobâr* numerals; (5) that, since the eighth century, the numerals in India underwent further changes and assumed the greatly modified forms of modern Devanâgarî numerals.