Story of Zero ("0")
The Story of Zero For centuries, Western scholars believed that the invention of zero (“0”) came from the Arab world. But only in the late 20th century was its true origin traced back to ancient India—a revelation that piqued my curiosity about how the Indo numeral system spread. This blog is not a scholarly paper. It reflects my understanding, based on readings, especially two books: 1) Finding Zero by Amir Aczel, which I read in 2023, and 2) The Golden Road by William Dalrymple in 2025. My goal for this blog was to write a simple story that I can remember. The Finding Zero book discusses the search for early evidence of an artifact of “zero.” For a long time, a temple wall in Gwalior, India (876 CE) , held the distinction of displaying the oldest known inscriptional zero. The inscription clearly shows a '0' in the numbers "270" and "50". The Bakhshali Manuscript (content believed by some to be from the 3rd or 4th century CE) : This ancient mathemati...