{"id":114877,"date":"2018-03-01T23:27:02","date_gmt":"2018-03-01T17:57:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/globalpress.hinduismnow.org\/?p=114877"},"modified":"2018-03-01T23:27:02","modified_gmt":"2018-03-01T17:57:02","slug":"revolutionary-zero-ancient-indian-manuscript-first-known-use-sunya-zee-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/?p=114877","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Revolutionary Zero&#8217;: This ancient Indian manuscript has the first known use of &#8216;Sunya&#8217; | Zee News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>New Delhi: The origin of the concept of zero or\u00a0<em>sunya\u00a0<\/em>has been traced an ancient Indian Bakhshali manuscript.<\/p>\n<p>Radiocarbon dating, conducted by the University of Oxford, reveals that the manuscript belongs to 3rd or 4th century \u2013 nearly 500 years before scholars previously believed was the birth of the concept of zero. This makes the Bakhshali manuscript world\u2019s oldest recorded origin of the zero symbol.<\/p>\n<p>Indians were the first to give a numerical sign to nothingness \u2013 zero, or\u00a0sunya, making it the one biggest breakthrough in the history of mathematics and science.<\/p>\n<p>In the fragile manuscript, zero is not been mentioned as a number, but acts as the placeholder in a number system, such as the \u201c0\u201d in \u201c101\u201d or \u201c1100\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe 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,\u201d states the University of Oxford.<\/p>\n<p>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\u00a0University since 1902.<\/p>\n<p>The script has several numbers written on it.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"A Big Zero: Research uncovers the date of the Bakhshali manuscript\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pV_gXGTuWxY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Marcus du Sautoy, professor of Mathematics at Oxford University, says that the manuscript is &#8220;a practical document used by merchants to do calculations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI visited a temple in Gwalior which has a zero marked on the wall, dating to the middle of the 9th century AD,\u201d he adds. But the document is nearly 500 years older than that.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday 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\u2019t this number,\u201d says Sautoy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a\u00a0total revolution that happens out of India,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis 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,\u201d says Du Sautoy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd that is exciting to recognise,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n<p>The Bakhshali manuscript will be on public display in the exhibition \u2013 \u2018Illuminating India: 5000 Years of Science&#8217; \u2013 at the Science Museum in London from October 4.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New Delhi: The origin of the concept of zero or\u00a0sunya\u00a0has 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 \u2013 nearly 500 years before scholars previously believed was the birth of the concept of zero. This makes the Bakhshali [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[1133],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114877"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=114877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114877\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=114877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=114877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=114877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}