The oldest written zero symbol
AI-drafted · awaiting admin review
Carbon dating in 2017 placed part of the Bakhshali manuscript, which uses a dot for zero, in the 3rd–4th century CE. Placeholder signs are older elsewhere, but the Indian dot is the ancestor of our 0.
Indian contribution, later developed elsewhereMathematics & astronomy
Indian claim
The Bakhshali manuscript has the world's oldest recorded zero symbol, from the 3rd or 4th century CE.
Evidence for the Indian claim
- In 2017 the Bodleian Libraries, Oxford, announced radiocarbon dates for the birch-bark manuscript; one folio was dated to 224–383 CE.
- The manuscript uses a dot as a placeholder in place-value numbers, and this dot later became the hollow circle 0.
- Before the test, the Chaturbhuj temple inscription at Gwalior (876 CE) was often called the oldest Indian zero; a Khmer inscription from Sambor, Cambodia, dated Saka 605 (683 CE), uses a zero in an Indian-derived numeral system.
Commonly credited to
Babylonian astronomers used a placeholder sign much earlier; and some scholars question how the Bakhshali dates should be read.
Evidence for the other claim
- Babylonian scribes used a placeholder sign in base-60 numbers well before the Common Era.
- The three Bakhshali samples gave three different dates spread over several centuries, so the manuscript is a mix of material, and some historians have urged caution about dating the text by its oldest leaf.
- Earlier scholarship (e.g. Takao Hayashi) dated the work to around the 7th century, with the surviving copy thought to be later still.
What historians and scientists say
A placeholder for 'nothing' appeared first in Babylonia. India's contribution was a zero sign inside a decimal place-value system, which developed into the 0 used worldwide. The early Bakhshali date is widely reported but its interpretation is still debated.