<P> A symbol for zero, a large dot likely to be the precursor of the still - current hollow symbol, is used throughout the Bakhshali manuscript, a practical manual on arithmetic for merchants, the date of which was uncertain . In 2017 three samples from the manuscript were shown by radiocarbon dating to come from three different centuries: from 224 - 383 AD, 680 - 779 AD, and 885 - 993 AD, making it the world's oldest recorded use of the zero symbol . It is not known how the birch bark fragments from different centuries that form the manuscript came to be packaged together . </P> <P> The origin of the modern decimal - based place value notation can be traced to the Aryabhatiya (c. 500), which states sthānāt sthānaṁ daśaguṇaṁ syāt "from place to place each is ten times the preceding ." The concept of zero as a digit in the decimal place value notation was developed in India, presumably as early as during the Gupta period (c. 5th century), with the oldest unambiguous evidence dating to the 7th century . </P> <P> The rules governing the use of zero appeared for the first time in Brahmagupta's Brahmasputha Siddhanta (7th century). This work considers not only zero, but negative numbers, and the algebraic rules for the elementary operations of arithmetic with such numbers . In some instances, his rules differ from the modern standard, specifically the definition of the value of zero divided by zero as zero . </P> <P> There are numerous copper plate inscriptions, with the same small o in them, some of them possibly dated to the 6th century, but their date or authenticity may be open to doubt . </P>

Who was the first indian to have used zero