History of Hindu Mathematics: A Source Book v1.c7.s16.4

v1.c7.s16.4

Of the above arguments, the second is against facts, for it is now established that the Hindu numeral notation with zero was perfected and was in use in India during the earliest centuries of the Christian era. The numerals could have, therefore, easily reached Europe along the trade routes in the fifth century or even earlier. The first argument is purely speculative and throws doubt on the authenticity of the occurrence of the numerals in Boethius' Geometry. It does not prove anything. It seems to us unfair to question the genuineness of the occurrence of the numerals, when they are found in all manuscripts of the work that are in existence now. Their occurrence in the Geometry can be easily explained on the ground that Boethius' knowledge of those numerals was very meagre. He had obtained the forms from some source—from the Neo-Pythagoreans or direct from some merchant or wandering scholar—but did not know their use. He might have known their use in writing big numbers by the help of the principle of place-value and zero, but he certainly did not know how the elementary operations of arithmetic were to be performed with those numerals. Hence he could make no use of them in his arithmetic or any other work. The writings of Sebokht (*c.* 650) show that the fame of the numerals had reached the west long before they were definitely introduced there. The question of the introduction of the Hindu numerals through the agency of Boethius may, therefore, be regarded as an open one, until further investigations decide it one way or the other.