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Bakhshali manuscript from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has the earliest recorded origin of the zero symbol

Mian Babban

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The Bakhshali manuscript is an early mathematical manuscript written on birch bark found in 1881 by a farmer in his field in Bakhshali village of Mardan district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It dates back to as early as third century. It is notable for being the oldest extant manuscript of mathematics in South Asia. The Carbon dating shows Bakhshali manuscript has the earliest recorded origin of the zero symbol.

Read http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-41265057

https://www.theguardian.com/science...ent-indian-text-contains-earliest-zero-symbol
 
The Bakhshali manuscript is now believed to date from the 3rd or 4th Century, making it hundreds of years older than previously thought.

It means the document, held in Oxford, has an earlier zero symbol than a temple in Gwailor, India.
The manuscript was found by a farmer in a village called Bakhshali, in what is now Pakistan, in 1881 before being acquired by the indologist Rudolf Hoernle, who presented it to the Bodleian Libraries in 1902.

It happened out of India , Of course it happened out of India , In Indus Valley Civilization Area , In Pakistan. The land of Great civilizations of there time.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-41265057

@django , @Zibago , @Arsalan , @Moonlight , @El Sidd

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indus_Valley_Civilisation
@Mian Babban , great find :enjoy:
 
Last edited:
The Bakhshali manuscript is now believed to date from the 3rd or 4th Century, making it hundreds of years older than previously thought.

It means the document, held in Oxford, has an earlier zero symbol than a temple in Gwailor, India.
The manuscript was found by a farmer in a village called Bakhshali, in what is now Pakistan, in 1881 before being acquired by the indologist Rudolf Hoernle, who presented it to the Bodleian Libraries in 1902.

It happened out of India , Of course it happened out of India , In Indus Valley Civilization Area , In Pakistan. The land of Great civilizations of there time.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-41265057

@django , @Zibago , @Arsalan , @Moonlight , @El Sidd

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indus_Valley_Civilisation
@Mian Babban , great find :enjoy:

Its appearing as India-related news in the newspapers all around the world. They dont even know where exactly is Bakhshali. In some of the newspapers (after consulting Britannica), the location is mentioned in vague manner as "near Peshawar" but Bakhshali is actually a big village of Mardan district.
 
https://www.theguardian.com/science...ent-indian-text-contains-earliest-zero-symbol

Much ado about nothing: ancient Indian text contains earliest zero symbol

Hannah Devlin Science correspondent


Thursday 14 September 2017 00.01 BSTLast modified on Thursday 14 September 2017 11.05 BST

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

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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.

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.”

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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.

The Bakhshali manuscript is now believed to date from the 3rd or 4th Century, making it hundreds of years older than previously thought.

It means the document, held in Oxford, has an earlier zero symbol than a temple in Gwailor, India.
The manuscript was found by a farmer in a village called Bakhshali, in what is now Pakistan, in 1881 before being acquired by the indologist Rudolf Hoernle, who presented it to the Bodleian Libraries in 1902.

It happened out of India , Of course it happened out of India , In Indus Valley Civilization Area , In Pakistan. The land of Great civilizations of there time.

@django , @Zibago , @Arsalan , @Moonlight , @El Sidd

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indus_Valley_Civilisation
@Mian Babban , great find :enjoy:

Bakhshali manuscript written in Śāradā script, had nothing to do with Indus Valley Civilization which was 2000 years older .

The manuscript is written in an earlier form of Śāradā script, which was mainly in use from the 8th to the 12th century, in the northwestern part of India, such as Kashmir and neighbouring regions. The language is the Gatha dialect (which is a combination of the ancient Indian languages of Sanskrit and Prakrit).

A colophon to one of the sections states that it was written by a brahmin identified as "the son of Chajaka", a "king of calculators," for the use of Vasiṣṭha's son Hasika. The brahmin might have been the author of the commentary as well as the scribe of the manuscript.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakhshali_manuscript
 
Indus valley civilization is the cradle of civilians.

Pakistan its heir apparent.
Isn't it a common belief people in pakistan lived in an era of Jahalia before advent of Islam in that region when MBQ conquered Sindh ?

If pakistanis were inheritors of cradle of civilization why they had to convert to islam , religion of Arab Bedouins ?

PS : Bakhshali manuscript was written by Hindu Brhamin/Baniya mathematician .
 
Isn't it a common belief people in pakistan lived in an era of Jahalia before advent of Islam in that region when MBQ conquered Sindh ?

If pakistanis were inheritors of cradle of civilization why they had to convert to islam , religion of Arab Bedouins ?

PS : Bakhshali manuscript was written by Hindu Brhamin/Baniya mathematician .

What's your point?

Lol
 
Bakhshali manuscript written in Śāradā script, had nothing to do with Indus Valley Civilization which was 2000 years older .

The manuscript is written in an earlier form of Śāradā script, which was mainly in use from the 8th to the 12th century, in the northwestern part of India, such as Kashmir and neighbouring regions. The language is the Gatha dialect (which is a combination of the ancient Indian languages of Sanskrit and Prakrit).

A colophon to one of the sections states that it was written by a brahmin identified as "the son of Chajaka", a "king of calculators," for the use of Vasiṣṭha's son Hasika. The brahmin might have been the author of the commentary as well as the scribe of the manuscript.

So the news of Zero not belong to Indian temple gave you a life time butthurt !!!! Isn't it ? Why cant you read again..........
LMAO here comes Indian Hindu bhagat......................

@El Sidd , he have no point , only trolling here .
 
Tesla was a (white) Christian. So every Ethiopian christian is a genius.
:lol:
Pakistanis have pathetic historical knowledge , poor people have to forget heavily tumultuous past , i pity them .

A Bit of history for you , when Chandragupta Maurya ruled 80% of the Indian sub cont from his capital Pataliputra/Patna , Bihar , ancient Greek historian Megasthenes work was an ambassador of Greece in his court , he wrote his an account in the book called Indica , so India existed even at the time of Chandragupta Maurya .

But you guys were happy or cherished being called Indian , changed everything about yourself from religion, culture to language , even a carved country called pakistan out of it in 1947 .

Don't blame us if we still carry the tag of india proudly for thousands of years .


Who used the Bakshali script??? was it the ancestors of Hazarwals/Potaharis
@Mian Babban @Kaptaan @xairhossi @Talwar e Pakistan @The Sandman @Zibago @Sher Shah Awan @Joe Shearer your erudite input would be greatly appreciated sir as would yours doc @Padmachen

It is Bakhshali manuscript , not script .

The manuscript is written in an earlier form of Śāradā script, which was mainly in use from the 8th to the 12th century, in the northwestern part of India, such as Kashmirand neighbouring regions. The language is the Gatha dialect (which is a combination of the ancient Indian languages of Sanskrit and Prakrit).

A colophon to one of the sections states that it was written by a brahmin identified as "the son of Chajaka", a "king of calculators," for the use of Vasiṣṭha's son Hasika. The brahmin might have been the author of the commentary as well as the scribe of the manuscript.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakhshali_manuscript
 
Pakistanis have pathetic historical knowledge , poor people have to forget heavily tumultuous past , i pity them .

A Bit of history for you , when Chandragupta Maurya ruled 80% of the Indian sub cont from his capital Pataliputra/Patna , Bihar , ancient Greek historian Megasthenes work was an ambassador of Greece in his court , he wrote his an account in the book called Indica , so India existed even at the time of Chandragupta Maurya .

But you guys were happy or cherished being called Indian , changed everything about yourself from religion, culture to language , even a carved country called pakistan out of it in 1947 .

Don't blame us if we still carry the tag of india proudly for thousands of years .




It is Bakhshali manuscript , not script .



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakhshali_manuscript
Script or manuscirpt , the point is Sarada script belongs to (kashmir, Taxila, hazara), my part of the world:yahoo:
 

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