The Bakhshali manuscript and the earliest recorded zero
- Date
- c. 224–383 CE (carbon-dated)
- Category
- Science, technology & invention
- Region
- Northwestern Indian subcontinent (near Peshawar)
- Era
- Classical Antiquity
- Significance
The Bakhshali manuscript, a birch-bark arithmetical treatise discovered in 1881 near Peshawar, contains what radiocarbon dating at the University of Oxford (2017) identified as the world's oldest recorded use of the symbol for zero: a dot (shunya-bindu) functioning as a placeholder within a decimal place-value system.
Carbon dating of its oldest folios placed them between roughly 224 and 383 CE, pushing the documented origin of the placeholder zero back several centuries before the famous 9th-century Gwalior temple inscription. While the conceptual and notational evolution of zero in India was gradual — and Indian mathematicians would later (notably Brahmagupta in 628 CE) treat zero as a number with its own arithmetic rules — the Bakhshali dot marks a pivotal stage in the development of the decimal positional system. Transmitted westward through the Islamic world as the 'Hindu-Arabic' numerals, this system became the foundation of modern mathematics, science, commerce and computation, arguably one of India's most far-reaching contributions to global civilisation.
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Empires active in c. 224–383 CE (carbon-dated)
- Roman Empire27 BCE – 476 CE
- Kingdom of Funan50 CE – 550 CE
- Sassanid Empire224 CE – 651 CE
- Kushan Empire30 CE – 375 CE
- Zapotec State of Monte Albán500 BCE – 800 CE
- Teotihuacan100 BCE – 750 CE
Related science, technology & invention events
- Cai Lun standardises papermaking105 CE
- Ptolemy completes the Almagestc. 150 CE
- Zhang Heng invents the seismoscope132 CE
- Compilation of the Charaka Samhita and the Codification of Ayurvedac. 100 CE
- Inauguration of the Colosseum (Flavian Amphitheatre)80 CE
- Earliest securely dated Maya/Mesoamerican Long Count inscription36 BCE (Long Count 7.16.3.2.13)
Further reading
The wider story
A Little History of Science
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