Many ancient civilisations had a way to show “nothing here” in a number. But zero as a number in its own right — one you can calculate with — was developed in India.
A placeholder first
The Babylonians used a placeholder symbol in their base-60 numbers, and the Maya used a zero glyph in their calendar. Neither treated zero as a number to do arithmetic with.
India: zero becomes a number
Indian mathematicians used a place-value system with nine digits and a dot or circle for zero. In 628 CE, the astronomer-mathematician Brahmagupta, in his work the Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta, wrote rules for calculating with zero: a number plus zero is the number, a number minus itself is zero, a number times zero is zero. (He struggled with division by zero — which mathematicians still treat as undefined.)
Carved in stone
A temple inscription at Gwalior Fort, dated 876 CE, includes the number 270 written with a small circle for zero — one of the oldest surviving examples of the zero we use today. The Bakhshali manuscript also uses a dot for zero; scientists’ dating of its pages caused much debate.
Journey to Europe
Indian numerals travelled to the Arab world, where scholars such as al-Khwarizmi wrote about them in the 9th century, and then to Europe — popularised by Fibonacci’s book Liber Abaci in 1202. That is why we call them “Hindu-Arabic numerals”.
And yes — every spreadsheet cell you have ever filled depends on it.
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