Exclusive: one of the greatest conceptual breakthroughs in mathematics has been traced to the Bakhshali manuscript, dating from the 3rd or 4th century

Nowt, nada, zilch: there is nothing new about nothingness. But the moment that the absence of stuff became zero, a number in its own right, is regarded as one of the greatest breakthroughs in the history of mathematics.

Now scientists have traced the origins of this conceptual leap to an ancient Indian text, known as the Bakhshali manuscript – a text which has been housed in the UK since 1902.

Radiocarbon dating reveals the fragmentary text, which is inscribed on 70 pieces of birch bark and contains hundreds of zeroes, dates to as early as the 3rd or 4th century – about 500 years older than scholars previously believed. This makes it the world’s oldest recorded origin of the zero symbol that we use today.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The ‘front’ page (recto) of folio 16 which dates to 224-383 AD. Photograph: Courtesy of Bodleian Libraries/ University of Oxford

Marcus du Sautoy, professor of mathematics at the University of Oxford, said: “Today we take it for granted that the concept of zero is used across the globe and our whole digital world is based on nothing or something. But there was a moment when there wasn’t this number.”

The Bakhshali manuscript was found in 1881, buried in a field in a village called Bakhshali, near Peshawar, in what is now a region of Pakistan. It was discovered by a local farmer and later acquired by the Bodleian Library in Oxford.

Translations of the text, which is written in a form of Sanskrit, suggest it was a form of training manual for merchants trading across the Silk Road, and it includes practical arithmetic exercises and something approaching algebra. “There’s a lot of ‘If someone buys this and sells this how much have they got left?’” said Du Sautoy.

Mathematical secrets of ancient tablet unlocked after nearly a century of study Read more

In the fragile document, zero does not yet feature as a number in its own right, but as a placeholder in a number system, just as the “0” in “101” indicates no tens. It features a problem to which the answer is zero, but here the answer is left blank.

Several ancient cultures independently came up with similar placeholder symbols. The Babylonians used a double wedge for nothing as part of cuneiform symbols dating back 5,000 years, while the Mayans used a shell to denote absence in their complex calendar system.



However the dot symbol in the Bakhshali script is the one that ultimately evolved into the hollow-centred version of the symbol that we use today. It also sowed the seed for zero as a number, which is first described in a text called Brahmasphutasiddhanta, written by the Indian astronomer and mathematician Brahmagupta in 628AD.

“This becomes the birth of the concept of zero in it’s own right and this is a total revolution that happens out of India,” said Du Sautoy.

The development of zero as a mathematical concept may have been inspired by the region’s long philosophical tradition of contemplating the void and may explain why the concept took so long to catch on in Europe, which lacked the same cultural reference points.

“This is coming out of a culture that is quite happy to conceive of the void, to conceive of the infinite,” said Du Sautoy. “That is exciting to recognise, that culture is important in making big mathematical breakthroughs.”

Despite developing sophisticated maths and geometry, the ancient Greeks had no symbol for zero, for instance, showing that while the concept zero may now feel familiar, it is not an obvious one.

“The Europeans, even when it was introduced to them, were like ‘Why would we need a number for nothing?’” said Du Sautoy. “It’s a very abstract leap.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Carbon dating reveals Bakhshali manuscript is centuries older than scholars believed and is formed of multiple leaves nearly 500 years different in age. Photograph: Courtesy of Bodleian Libraries/ University of Oxford

In the latest study, three samples were extracted from the manuscript and analysed at the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit. The results revealed that the three samples tested date from three different centuries, one from 224-383 AD, another from 680-779 AD and another from 885-993 AD, raising further questions about how the manuscript came to be packaged together as a single document.

The development of zero in mathematics underpins an incredible range of further work, including the notion of infinity, the modern notion of the vacuum in quantum physics, and some of the deepest questions in cosmology of how the Universe arose – and how it might disappear from existence in some unimaginable future scenario.

Richard Ovenden, head of the Bodleian Library, said the results highlight a Western bias that has often seen the contributions of South Asian scholars being overlooked. “These surprising research results testify to the subcontinent’s rich and longstanding scientific tradition,” he said.

The manuscript will be on public display on 4 October, as part of a major exhibition, Illuminating India: 5000 Years of Science and Innovation, at the Science Museum in London.

</s>LONDON: The Bakshali manuscript, which revealed the first use of symbol zero is now believed to date from the 3rd or 4th century, making it 500 year older than previously thought, UK media reported.

The manuscript was found in 1881 buried in a field in a village called Bakhshali, near Peshawar, in what is now Pakistan. It was discovered by a local farmer and later acquired by the Bodleian Library in Oxford.

Inscribed on 70 pieces of birch bark, the Bakhshali manuscript reveals the fragmentary text, which contains hundreds of zeroes written in form of Sanskrit. The carbon dating has confirmed world’s oldest recorded origin of the zero symbols that we use today.

According to the report published in Guardian, the results of the study and the manuscript, which is housed in UK since 1902 would be on public display next month, as part of a major exhibition in London.

Marcus du Sautoy, professor of mathematics at the University of Oxford, said: “Today we take it for granted that the concept of zero is used across the globe and our whole digital world is based on nothing or something. But there was a moment when there wasn’t this number.”

The text on Bakshali manuscript translates to be a training manual for Silk Road merchants, and its birch bark pages contain hundreds of zeros, which originally appeared as dots before developing their hollow center.

Bakshali manuscripts include practical arithmetic exercises and something approaching algebra. “There’s a lot of ‘If someone buys this and sells this how much have they got left?’” said Du Sautoy.

While other cultures developed different symbols to represent concepts similar to zero, it was this dot that carried on into the modern world. Du Sautoy says the introduction of zero was a "total revolution" and one of the "greatest breakthroughs" in mathematics.

However, the dot symbol in the Bakhshali script is the one that ultimately evolved into the hollow-centred version of the symbol that we use today. It also sowed the seed for zero as a number, which is first described in a text called Brahmasphutasiddhanta, written by the Indian astronomer and mathematician Brahmagupta in 628AD.</s>A magnified view of folio 16v shows the use of a dot as a placeholder on the bottom line.

The concept of zero as a number was revolutionary in mathematics. Historians have long known the idea came from India, but its exact origins remain murky.

Now, the oldest Indian reference to the digit zero has been identified, in a manuscript dating back to the third or fourth century, scientists at the University of Oxford in England announced.

The University of Oxford's Bodleian Libraries has had the famous ancient Indian scroll, the Bakhshali manuscript, in its collection since 1902. A farmer dug up the text from a field in 1881 in the village of Bakhshali, near Peshawar in what is today Pakistan. It consists of 70 leaves of birch bark and contains hundreds of zeros in the form of dots. [Images: The World's 11 Most Beautiful Calculations]

These dots were not zeros like we think of the numeral today. Before zero came to be known as a number in its own right, it was used as a placeholder digit for building larger numbers (as the zero in 101 is doing). Other, more ancient cultures used similar placeholders, such as the Mayans, who used the symbol of a shell, and the Babylonians, who used a double wedge.

The placeholder zero in the Bakhshali manuscript is still "exciting" Marcus du Sautoy, a professor of mathematics at the University of Oxford, said in a statement, because it is "the seed from which the concept of zero as a number in its own right emerged some centuries later, something many regard as one of the of the great moments in the history of mathematics."

The concept of zero as the number representing absolute nothingness paved the way for algebra, calculus and computer science. The first text to discuss zero in the numerical sense is the Indian astronomer Brahmagupta's work "Brahmasphutasiddhanta," which was written in A.D. 628.

Previously, researchers had tried to determine the age of the Bakhshali manuscript by looking at its style of writing and language. A recent Japanese study concluded that the text was likely written between the eighth and the 12th centuries.

The study from Oxford used radiocarbon dating, a method for measuring the content of carbon isotopes in organic material to determine its age (an isotope is a variation of an element that has a different number of neutrons in its nucleus). The results produced a further complication: The Bakhshali manuscript might not be a single text but several texts.

The carbon dating resulted in three different dates for different parts of the manuscript. The oldest part dated to A.D. 224-383, but two other parts dated to A.D. 680-779 and A.D. 885-993.

"It is possible that the Bakhshali manuscript is made up of more than one text," one of the researchers, Camillo Formigatti, a Sanskrit librarian at the Bodleian Libraries, wrote in statement from Oxford. "More research is needed to better understand what the manuscript consists of."</s>Ancient Indian mathematical document earliest known use of zero, carbon dating reveals

Ancient Indians were using a symbol for zero centuries earlier than historians previously thought, new research in the United Kingdom has revealed.

Carbon dating performed by researchers at Oxford University on the Bakhshali manuscript, an ancient mathematical document, resulted in the unexpected discovery it originated in the third or fourth century.

Inscribed on 70 pieces of birch bark, the Bakhshali manuscript contains hundreds of zeroes, and was first found by a farmer in 1881 in what is now Pakistan, before being taken to the UK.

It is particularly significant because it is only in India that the symbol, conveyed as a black dot, developed into a number in its own right — the hollow circle we use today.

Marcus du Sautoy, a professor of mathematics at Oxford University, said the manuscript shows Indians were using the concept of zero long before other civilisations.

"[The Bakhshali manuscript] isn't theoretical text. It seems to be a practical document being used by merchants to do calculations," Professor du Sautoy said.

"I'm absolutely staggered to find this is way earlier. We're talking about, having carbon dated this, this manuscript is between 200 and 400 AD."

Radiocarbon dating has now revealed it was written about 500 years earlier than scholars previously believed.

"But the creation of zero as a number in its own right, which evolved from the placeholder dot symbol found in the Bakhshali manuscript, was one of the greatest breakthroughs in the history of mathematics."

Adam Spencer, the University of Sydney's mathematics ambassador, said zero historically has filled two roles — as a numerical symbol and as a mathematical concept.

"Historically in mathematics, these are two quite different things. Zero as a symbol, how do you write 37 and 3,007 as different numbers," Mr Spencer said.

"Some civilisations didn't have a symbol, they just left a space. But that gets really confusing — 307 looks like 3,007 etcetera. So different communities eventually stumbled upon the idea of a symbol for the number zero."

The ancient Babylonians were using a symbol for nothing about 5,000 years ago, while the Mayans used a shell to denote nothing as a placeholder too.



But the Indian use of a dot and the subsequent use of the mathematical concept of zero, or how we quantify nothing, opened up a world of mathematical discoveries.

"This caused real philosophical problems for example with the Greeks, and many cultures are said to have almost thought it was heretical to talk about the concept of zero as a number," Mr Spencer said.

"For something so trivial, zero was at centre of so many important parts of mathematics. People who did calculus in high school remember derivatives, the consequence of the infinitely small going to zero underpins all of calculus.

"Computer code at its most basic is nothing but zeros and ones. And now as we confront quantum theories, we face really deep questions of can a space have absolutely nothing in it? Zero is everywhere."</s>An ancient Indian mathematical text has been found to be the oldest recorded origin of zero, proving that the number is centuries older than it was previously thought to be.

On Sept. 14, the University of Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries said that radiocarbon dating conducted on the Bakhshali manuscript, a text that contains hundreds of zeroes denoted by dots, revealed that it dates from the 3rd or 4th century Common Era. That makes it around 500 years older than researchers previously believed. The Bakhshali manuscript was found buried in a village called Bakhshali near Peshawar, in what is now part of Pakistan, in 1881. It consists of 70 fragile leaves of birch bark and has been kept by the Bodleian Library since 1902.

Until now, a 9th century inscription of zero on the wall of a temple in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, was believed to be the oldest record of the symbol, but the latest research shows that ancient Indians were using zero as a “placeholder” figure to indicate magnitude in numbers hundreds of years before that.

While both the ancient Mayans and Babylonians also used zero as a placeholder symbol, it was the ancient Indians who developed it into a number of its own accord, pioneering the idea of nothingness as a mathematical concept, a key event in the history of mathematics. Over time, the dots found in the Bakhshali manuscript evolved into the hollow-centred symbol that we know as the zero today.

“We now know that it was as early as the 3rd century that mathematicians in India planted the seed of the idea that would later become so fundamental to the modern world,” Marcus du Sautoy, professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford, said in a statement. “The findings show how vibrant mathematics have been in the Indian subcontinent for centuries.”</s>New Delhi: The origin of the concept of zero or sunya has been traced an ancient Indian Bakhshali manuscript.

Radiocarbon dating, conducted by the University of Oxford, reveals that the manuscript belongs to 3rd or 4th century – nearly 500 years before scholars previously believed was the birth of the concept of zero. This makes the Bakhshali manuscript world’s oldest recorded origin of the zero symbol.

Indians were the first to give a numerical sign to nothingness – zero, or sunya, making it the one biggest breakthrough in the history of mathematics and science.

In the fragile manuscript, zero is not been mentioned as a number, but acts as the placeholder in a number system, such as the “0” in “101” or “1100”.

“The Bakhshali manuscript is an ancient Indian mathematical manuscript written on more than 70 leaves of birch bark, found in 1881. It is notable for having a dot representing zero in it,” states the University of Oxford.

Discovered in 1881, the ancient script is an Indian mathematical manuscript, written on 70 pieces of birch bark. It is in an ancient form of Sanskrit and has been at the Oxford University since 1902.

The script has several numbers written on it.

Marcus du Sautoy, professor of Mathematics at Oxford University, says that the manuscript is "a practical document used by merchants to do calculations.”

“I visited a temple in Gwalior which has a zero marked on the wall, dating to the middle of the 9th century AD,” he adds. But the document is nearly 500 years older than that.

“Today we take it for granted that the concept of zero is used across the globe and our whole digital world is based on nothing or something. But there was a moment when there wasn’t this number,” says Sautoy.

“This is a total revolution that happens out of India,” he adds.

“This is coming out of a culture that is quite happy to conceive of the void, to conceive of the infinite. The idea of the symbol of nothing is a part of their philosophical culture,” says Du Sautoy.

“And that is exciting to recognise,” he adds.

The Bakhshali manuscript will be on public display in the exhibition – ‘Illuminating India: 5000 Years of Science' – at the Science Museum in London from October 4.</s>According to Times of India, the symbol "0" is a familiar sight, but its origins are far from certain. A recent batch of carbon dating is causing the history of mathematics to be rewritten, as it has discovered zeros dating back to a period 500 years before previously seen.

The numbers appear in an ancient Indian text called the Bakhshali manuscript, which consists of 70 leaves of birch bark, filled with mathematics and text in the form of Sanskrit.

"It seems to be a training manual for Buddhist monks," says Marcus du Sautoy at the University of Oxford.The manuscript was first discovered by a local farmer in 1881, and was named after the village it was found in, in what is now Pakistan. It's been housed by the University of Oxford's Bodleian Library since 1902.

Now, the manuscript has been carbon dated -and this has immediately upturned commonly held beliefs. It was originally thought that the manuscript was from the 9th century, but the dating methods revealed that the oldest pages are from somewhere between 224 AD and 383 AD. This means that the manuscript predates a 9th century inscription of zero on the wall of a temple in Gwalior, India, which was previously considered to be the oldest recorded example of a zero.

Across the text there are hundreds of zeros denoted using a dot. It's this dot that later evolved to be the symbol with a hole in the middle that we know today. The dot was originally used as a placeholder, like how "0" is used in the number 505 to denote that there are no tens, but was not yet a number in its own right. The use of zero as a placeholder appeared in several different ancient cultures, such as the ancient Mayans and Babylonians. But only the Indian dot would eventually go on to gain true number status, first described in 628 AD by the Indian astronomer and mathematician Brahmagupta.

"Some of these ideas that we take for granted had to be dreamt up. Numbers were there to count things, so if there is nothing there why would you need a number?" says du Sautoy. The concept of zero, initially banned as heresy, was eventually allowed for the development of calculus, and underpins the digital age. "The whole of modern technology is built on the idea of something and nothing," he says.</s>New Delhi: The zero, crown jewel of India's rich heritage in mathematics, just grew older by at least 500 years.The research was performed on the Bakhshali Manuscript, a mathematical document written on birch bark which was found close to ancient Taxila now near Peshawar in 1881. It has been housed in the University of Oxford since 1902.The findings mean that the manuscript predates a 9th century inscription of zero on the wall of a temple in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, which was previously considered to be the oldest recorded example of a zero used as a placeholder in India, a report by Oxford's Bodleian Libraries said.The findings are highly significant for the study of the early history of mathematics, it added.The report says the zero symbol that we use today evolved from a dot that was used in ancient India and can be seen throughout the Bakhshali manuscript. The dot was originally used as a 'placeholder', meaning it was used to indicate orders of magnitude in a number system - for example, denoting 10s, 100s and 1000s.While the use of zero as a placeholder was seen in several different ancient cultures, such as among the ancient Mayans and Babylonians, the symbol in the Bakhshali manuscript is particularly significant for two reasons. Firstly, it is this dot that evolved to have a hollow centre and became the symbol that we use as zero today.Secondly, it was only in India that this zero developed into a number in its own right, hence creating the concept and the number zero that we understand today - this happened in 628 AD, just a few centuries after the Bakhshali manuscript was produced, when the Indian astronomer and mathematician Brahmagupta wrote a text called Brahmasphutasiddhanta, which is the first document to discuss zero as a number," the report said."Today we take it for granted that the concept of zero is used across the globe and is a key building block of the digital world. But the creation of zero as a number in its own right, which evolved from the placeholder dot symbol found in the Bakhshali manuscript, was one of the greatest breakthroughs in the history of mathematics," said Marcus du Sautoy, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford.</s>OXFORD, ENGLAND—The Guardian reports that new radiocarbon dates have been obtained for the Bakhshali manuscript, which was written in an ancient form of Sanskrit on 70 pieces of birch bark, by members of the Heritage Science team at the University of Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries. The text, discovered in 1881 in a village located in what is now Pakistan, is thought to have been a training manual complete with practice arithmetic problems for merchants trading on the Silk Road, and is known for its use of a dot to represent the concept of zero. The new dates indicate the oldest pieces of the Bakhshali manuscript date to the third or fourth century A.D., or about 500 years earlier than had been previously thought, based upon the style of writing and the content. The new dates make the Bakhshali manuscript the oldest-known record of the use of the zero symbol. For more on ancient writing, go to “London’s Earliest Writing.”</s>A new carbon dating study commissioned by the University of Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries has revealed that the zero originated in the third or fourth century AD, 500 years before originally thought. Researchers found that the ancient Indian Bakhshali manuscript, which contains hundreds of zeroes, dates from the third or fourth century AD, the Bodleian Libraries said in a report on Thursday.

The new findings mean that the zero predates the ninth-century inscription of the digit found on the wall of a temple in Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh, earlier thought to be the oldest recorded use of the zero. In the Bakhshali manuscript, found near Taxila, the zero is in the form of a dot, used as a placeholder – meaning that it was used to indicate orders of magnitude in a number system.

The ancient Babylonians and Mayans had also used the zero as a placeholder, but the Bodleian Libraries report says that it was in India that the zero evolved from a dot into a circle. Secondly, it was only in India that the zero developed into a number used in mathematical equations.

‘Today we take it for granted that the concept of zero is used across the globe and is a key building block of the digital world,” Marcus du Sautoy, professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford said. “But the creation of zero as a number in its own right, which evolved from the placeholder dot symbol found in the Bakhshali manuscript, was one of the greatest breakthroughs in the history of mathematics. We now know that it was as early as the third century that mathematicians in India planted the seed of the idea that would later become so fundamental to the modern world.”

The report says that the first document which discusses the zero as a number is the Brahmasphutasiddhanta, written by the Indian mathematician and astronomer Brahmagupta in 628 AD. The Bakhshali manuscript was found in 1881, buried in a field in a village called Bakhshali near Peshawar.
The origin of the zero may have been in South Asia according to a Sanskrit script housed in the United Kingdom since 1902 and discovered in Bakhshali near Peshawar, Pakistan.