The Hindu-Arabic Numerals c9.27

c9.27

The Indian use of subscript dots to indicate the tens, hundreds, thousands, etc., is established by a passage in the *Kitāb al-Fihrist*⁴ (987 a.d.) in which the writer discusses the written language of the people of India. Notwithstanding the importance of this reference for the early history of the numerals, it has not been mentioned by previous writers on this subject. The numeral forms given are those which have usually been called Indian,⁵ in opposition to ġobār. In this document the dots are placed below the characters, instead of being superposed as described above. The significance was the same.