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. 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. 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." 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. 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. 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.
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.