The Hindu-Arabic Numerals c8.3

c8.3

It was some centuries after the primitive Brāhmī and Kharoṣṭhī numerals had made their appearance in India that the zero first appeared there, although such a character was used by the Babylonians¹ in the centuries immediately preceding the Christian era. The symbol is [Figure:] or [Figure:], and apparently it was not used in calculation. Nor does it always occur when units of any order are lacking; thus 180 is written [Figure:] with the meaning three sixties and no units, since 181 immediately following is written [Figure:], three sixties and one unit.² The main use of this Babylonian symbol seems to have been in the fractions, 60ths, 3600ths, etc., and somewhat similar to the Greek use of *o*, for οὐδέν, with the meaning *vacant*.