Problem: Try counting without zero for a second. Go ahead—1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Now write the number “ten” without using zero. You needed a completely different symbol, right? Now imagine doing your bank balance, your phone number, or even telling someone your house number without a zero. Impossible, isn’t it?
Yet for thousands of years, humanity struggled with math without it. Ancient civilizations built pyramids, tracked stars, and ran empires—all without zero.
The Math Problem Nobody Could Solve.
Here is what is unconventional. The Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans were brilliant. They created geometry, built aqueducts, and developed complex architecture. But they all hit the same wall.
How do you express “nothing” in mathematics?
The Babylonians tried using spaces. The Mayans used a shell symbol. But these were just placeholders—like using a blank space to show something’s missing. Nobody treated “nothing” as an actual number you could calculate with.
Think about it. You can add 5 + 3. You can multiply 7 × 2. But what happens when you add nothing? What is 5 + nothing? The ancient world did not have an answer.
That is where India comes in.
Enter Prabhat, the 5th Century Genius.
Around 476 CE, in Kusumapura (modern-day Patna), a mathematician named Aryabhata was born. By age 23, he had already written his masterwork—the Aryabhatiya.
This was not some random dude. Aryabhata figured out that Earth rotates on its axis (people thought the sun moved around Earth). He calculated pi to 3.1416—shockingly accurate for his time. He developed formulas for calculating areas and volumes that we still use today.
But perhaps the biggest? Understanding zero.
Now, here is the interesting part. Aryabhata did not directly use a symbol for zero. Instead, he used a place-value system where the position of a number determined its value. He used the Sanskrit word “Khan” (meaning void or sky) for empty positions.
Let me explain what that means in regular words.
The Place-Value Revolution:
Look at the number 305. The “3” does not just mean three—it means three hundred because of where it sits. The “0” in the middle? It is just nothing. It is a placeholder showing there are no tens.
Without zero, you could not tell the difference between 35 and 305 and 3005. They would all look the same.
Aryabhata’s system needed this concept of “nothing” to work. His astronomical calculations—tracking planets, predicting eclipses—couldn’t happen without understanding zero as a placeholder.
French mathematician Georges Ifrah studied Aryabhata’s work and concluded that zero was “implicit” in his place-value system. Basically, Aryabhata understood zero, although he did not write a symbol for it.
Brahmagupta Takes It Further
About 150 years later, another Indian mathematician named Brahmagupta took zero to the next level.
In 628 CE, Brahmagupta wrote the Brahmasphutasiddhanta. This is where zero became a real number—not just a placeholder but something you could actually use in equations.
He laid out rules:
- Identity Property of Addition: A number plus zero equals that number (5 + 0 = 5)
- A number minus zero equals that number (7 – 0 = 7)
- anything times zero is zero 10 × 0 = 0
Brahmagupta even tried dividing by zero (spoiler: that still causes problems in math today—it’s “undefined”).
The symbol he used? A small dot. That dot would eventually evolve into the circle we know today.
Why Did India Figure This Out?
Here is where culture meets mathematics.
In ancient India, philosophy and math were not separate. Hindu and Buddhist teachings talked about “Sonya”—the concept of emptiness or void. Not nothingness as in “insignificant,” but emptiness as in infinite potential.
The Hindu symbol “Bindu”—a circle with a dot—represented this cosmic void. When mathematicians needed a symbol for mathematical nothingness, they borrowed from spiritual tradition. The circle we use for zero today probably came from this.
Other civilizations did not have this philosophical framework. To the Greeks, “nothing” literally meant nothing—not something worth studying. How do you calculate with something that does not exist?
Indian mathematicians thought differently. If emptiness is real philosophically, why can’t it be real mathematically?
The Journey West: How Zero Conquered the World
For centuries, zero stayed in India and neighboring regions. Then Arab traders and scholars discovered Indian mathematics.
Around 825 CE, Persian mathematician Al-Khwarizmi (whose name gave us the word “algorithm”) learned about the Indian number system. He wrote books explaining it to the Arab world, calling zero “Sir” in Arabic (meaning empty).
That word “Sir” traveled. It became “Zephyrus” in Latin, then “zero” in Italian, and finally “zero” in English.
But Europe resisted. Hard.
Europe’s Zero Problem
When Italian mathematician Fibonacci introduced Hindu-Arabic numerals (including zero) to Europe in his 1202 book Liber Abaci, the Church freaked out.
Why? Because “nothingness” challenged religious ideas. God created everything—how could nothing be something? The concept of void felt dangerous, even heretical.
Merchants loved it, though. Try doing accounting with Roman numerals (I, V, X, L, C). Nightmare. With zero, calculations became simple. Banks and traders secretly used it while the Church condemned it.
Eventually, zero won. By the Renaissance, Europe could not deny its usefulness anymore.
Why Zero Changed Everything?
Zero is arguably the greatest Indian gift to humanity, and let me break down why.
- Math Became Possible.
Without zero, there is no algebra. There is no calculus. You cannot solve equations like x + 5 = 5, which is answered by x = 0.
Sir Isaac Newton harnessed it to create calculus. Einstein’s theory of relativity requires it. In short, zero is required by modern physics.
- Technology Happened
To your phone? Computer? The Internet? They all operate on binary code-combinations of 0 and 1.
No zero, no digital technology. None. The device you are reading this on would not exist.
- Science Advanced
Astronomy requires zero when measuring distances and trajectories. Chemistry employs it in equations. Medicine relies upon it for dosing and measurement.
The thermometer uses zero as a reference point. Coordinates on maps use zero (latitude/longitude).
- Trade Fitted
Now, try conducting a business without zero. Where would one show balanced accounts? One mark something as sold out? One compute profit margins?
Zero made modern economics possible.
The Archeological Evidence:
The oldest known surviving written zero is on the K-127 stone, dated to 683 Common Era, as found in Cambodia. This has zero represented like a dot amongst its peers.
Then there is the Gwalior zero from 876 CE, carved into the Chaturthi temple in Gwalior, India. This one looks like our modern zero—an oval shape. You can still see it today. These are not just historical artifacts. They are proof of when zero became a standard number that everyone used.
Setting the Record Straight
Sometimes you will hear people credit zero to the Babylonians or the Mayans. Here is the truth:
- Babylonians (about 300 BCE) : Employed empty spaces as place holders. Did not regard it as a number.
-Mayans circa 350CE: They used a shell symbol for zero, treated it as a number, but their system never spread globally.
- India, 5th to 7th century CE: Finalized zero as a placeholder and number; full algorithmization of arithmetic, then spread worldwide.
Instead, India used zero, but then developed an entire mathematical framework around it that everyone else followed.
The Indian Mathematics Legacy
Zero was not India’s only contribution. Aryabhata also:
- Calculated pi as 3.1416
- Developed trigonometry (the word “sine” comes from the Sanskrit word “Jay”)
Created algorithms from the name of Al-Khwarizmi, based on Indian mathematics
The decimal system? Indian. The concept of negative numbers? Indian mathematicians worked on that too.
But all of them stand behind zero.
Why Does This Matter Today?
In 2025, we take zero completely for granted. It is on our keyboards, in our calculations, in every digital system.
But imagine explaining to Prabhat that his concept of “Khan” would one day power spacecraft, enable global communication, and make possible computers that fit in your pocket.
The zero you use to check your bank balance? The zero in your ZIP code? The zeros in computer code? All trace back to ancient India.
The Bottom Line
Zero originated as a philosophical understanding of emptiness as an entity. Indian mathematicians, particularly Aryabhata and Brahmagupta, developed the philosophy of mathematics.
They gave zero a place. Then they gave it rules. Then they gave it to the world. From India to Arabia to Europe to everywhere, zero traveled and transformed everything it touched. It went from representing “nothing” to being the foundation of everything in modern math, science, and technology. Not bad for a number that literally means nothing. Next time you see a zero, remember: you are looking at an idea born in ancient India that is still changing the world 1,500 years later. An idea so simple—a circle, a dot, a space—yet so powerful that civilization could not advance without it. That is the real magic of zero. And that is India’s gift to humanity. Think about it: The most important number in your life is the one that represents nothing at all.
