The Hindu-Arabic Numerals c7.35

c7.35

It is generally thought that this *śūnya* as a symbol was not used before about 500 a.d., although some writers have placed it earlier.³ Since Āryabhaṭa gives our common method of extracting roots, it would seem that he may have known a decimal notation,⁴ although he did not use the characters from which our numerals are derived.⁵ Moreover, he frequently speaks of the void.¹ If he refers to a symbol this would put the zero as far back as 500 A.D., but of course he may have referred merely to the concept of nothingness.