AN EXPLANATION
For those who are interested in how the concept of zero originated in India, the Children’s Book Trust, New Delhi has published a 22 page booklet in English entitled, ‘The Story of Zero,’ which has been written for the general reader as well as for children by Dilip M. Salwai.
Before this invention there existed no simple method of representing large figures. According to one method, certain words were fixed for particular figures like Sahasara for 1,000, Aayota for 10,000, Laksha for 100,000, and Koti for 1,000,000. The invention of zero revolutionized the science of mathematics, for now it became extremely easy to denote large figures.
Brahma Gupta (598-660), who was born in Multan, was the first notable person to work out a method of using the zero. However, his method had some shortcomings. Later on Bhaskar (1114-1185), who was born in Bijapur, wrote a book in Sanskrit called Lailawati, in which he described the zero concept in simpler and more understandable terms.
R. K. Murthi, in his review of this book, writes: “It boosts our sense of national pride to note that the zero was conceived of in India.”
The writer of Lailawati tells us that “the Indian numbers first entered Spain, then Italy, France, England and Germany ...Indian numbers were accepted completely ....Their adoption turned out to be the turning point in the history of mathematics and science.”
It is true that the concept of zero originated in India, but it is not true that it reached the western world directly from India: it was through the Arabs that it reached the West. That is why the West calls these numerals Arabic rather than Indian. The Encyclopaedia Britannica says:
Arabic numerals—the numbers, 0, 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 they may have originated in India, but were introduced to the western world from Arabia.
The Encyclopaedia tells us, moreover, that these numbers became known to western intellectuals in the ninth century through the writings of the Arab mathematician, Al--Khwarizmi, whose explanations of numbers in Arabic reached Europe through Latin translations.
Bertrand Russell writes:
About 830, Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, a translator of mathematical and astronomical books from the Sanskrit, published a book which was translated into Latin in the twelfth century, under the title Algorimi de numero Indrum. It was from this book that the west first learnt of what we call ‘Arabic’ numerals, which ought to be called ‘Indian.’ The same author wrote a book on algebra, which was used in the West as a textbook until the sixteenth century.
In spite of the concept of zero having originated in India, for several hundred years it received no recognition in India itself. It came to be generally known in India only when first the Arabs and then the West adopted it. The Encyclopaedia Britannica says: “The invention, probably by the Hindus, of the digit zero, has been described as one of the greatest importance in the history of mathematics. Hindu literature gives evidence that the zero may have been known before the birth of Christ, but no inscription has been found with such a symbol before the ninth century.”
It is true then that the concept of zero had first formed in the mind of an Indian. But at that period in history, India was dominated wholly by polytheism and superstition. Everything was shrouded in mystery and inventions were abhorred. That was why the concept of zero did not receive general recognition in ancient India. It was reduced to a mere discovery of an individual, and thus failed to win general approval. The seed of India, neglected at home, did, however, fall on fertile soil in Muslim Baghdad, where it flowered into a tree and then, via Muslim Spain, spread all over Europe.
Yet, without Islam having first put an end to the concepts of polytheism and superstition, the concept of zero—like so many other innovative ideas—could not have been universally welcomed.
