12 ◾ Computing
e use of zero as a real value probably rst appeared in India around
the h century. Lokavibhaga, or “e Parts of the Universe,” is the oldest
known text to use a decimal place-value system that included a zero. is
Jain cosmological text, dated 458 AD, uses Sanskrit words for numerals,
including the word shunya for zero, meaning “void” or “empty” [5].
Aryabhata (476–550) was a renowned Indian mathematician and
the author of several treatises on mathematics and astronomy. His best
known work is Aryabhatiya, a text that summarizes Indian mathe matical
knowledge during the h and sixth centuries. Around 498 AD, Aryabhata
used the letters of the traditional Sanskrit alphabet to record numbers.
Some historians and mathematicians ...