0] If he refers to a symbol this
would put the zero as far back as 500 A.D., but of course he may have
referred merely to the concept of nothingness.

A little later, but also in the sixth century, Var[=a]ha-Mihira[151] wrote
a work entitled _B[r.]hat Sa[m.]hit[=a]_[152] in which he frequently uses
_['s][=u]nya_ in speaking of numerals, so that it has been thought that he
was referring to a definite symbol. This, of course, would add to the
probability that [=A]ryabha[t.]a was doing the same.

It should also be mentioned as a matter of interest, and somewhat related
to the question at issue, that Var[=a]ha-Mihira used the word-system with
place value[153] as explained above.

The first kind of alphabetic numerals and also the word-system (in both of
which the place value is used) are plays upon, or variations of, position
arithmetic, which would be most likely to occur in the country of its
origin.[154]

At the opening of the next century (c. 620 A.D.) B[=a][n.]a[155] wrote of
Subandhus's _V[=a]savadatt[=a]_ as a celebrated work, {45} and mentioned
that the stars dotting the sky are here compared with zeros, these being
points as in the modern Arabic system. On the other hand, a strong argument
against any Hindu knowledge of the symbol zero at this time is the fact
that about 700 A.D. the Arabs overran the province of Sind and thus had an
opportunity of knowing the common methods used there for writing numbers.
And yet, when they received the complete system in 776 they looked upon it
as something new.[156] Such evidence is not conclusive, but it tends to
show that the complete system was probably not in common use in India at
the beginning of the eighth century. On the other hand, we must bear in
mind the fact that a traveler in Germany in the year 1700 would probably
have heard or seen nothing of decimal fractions, although these were
perfected a century before that date. The elite of the mathematicians may
have known the zero even in [=A]ryabha[t.]a's time, while the merchants and
the common people may not have grasped the significance of the novelty
until a long time after. On the whole, the evidence seems to point to the
west coast of India as the region where the complete system was first
seen.[157] As mentioned above, traces of the numeral words with place
value, which do not, however, absolutely require a decimal place-system of
symbols, are found very early in Cambodia, as well as in India.

Concerning the