World's first Zero in an Interesting and Mysterious Bakhshali Manuscript - Ancient Indian Mathematics

The Bakhshali Manuscript, is an ancient Indian mathematical manuscript, important, interesting, with a touch of mystery, and at the same time fascinating too. Bakhshali Manuscript has been recognized by Oxford University as the world’s first recorded utilization of the numerical symbol for zero, five hundred years earlier than suspected. It was previously thought that the earliest documented instance of using zero was a ninth-century inscription on a wall in a Gwalior temple, India.

 Bakhshali manuscript, was written on birch tree barkImage Source: wikimedia

Discovery: 

The manuscript was found in 1881 in the village of Bakhshali of undivided India, but now in Pakistan. The first research on the ancient manuscript was done by A. F. R. Hoernlé, 

(German-British Orientalist), after it was unearthed from a field. This ancient and important historical manuscript, was written on birch tree bark, therefore making it very fragile. But preserved as best as possible, at a constant temperature, and low humidity, in the Bodleian Library, of the University of Oxford. The manuscript is written in seventy leaves of bark, it is about different kinds of equations, like quadratic, linear, second degree, and indeterminate equations.

Image Post for Social Media Sharing on Bakhshali Manuscript

A mathematics professor at Oxford, Marcus du Sautoy, said, “We now know that it was as early as the third century that mathematicians in India planted the seed of the idea that would later become so fundamental to the modern world "

Contents:

Also has explanations about arithmetic, algebra, and geometry problems. Beautiful in its own right, as mathematics is. It is interesting how the mathematical problems were written. The author wrote the problems in verse, after solved, and explained, this was written in prose, by using this innovative way, it is easier to remember, and understand, all this important and useful.

Carbon Dating:

There is some degree of disagreement as to when these manuscripts were originally written. Carbon dating of different portions of the manuscripts suggested three different centuries, sometime between AD  224–383, 680–779,and AD 885 to 993, results from radiocarbon dating of other portions. A slight mystery is how pieces of this manuscript from different centuries were added together, perhaps, leaves from the manuscript were preserved through the centuries, and more were added.

   Gwalior Fort Temple, India.
 Image Source: wikimedia

Interesting facts about the Bakhshali Manuscript:

It seem that probably, its original author was, Chajaka's son, (a "king of calculators," for the use of Vasiṣṭha's son Hasika ) a Brahmin. In the manuscript a dot inside a circle, Sunya, or bindu, was a way to represent zero, at that time, and could be one of the oldest representation of zero. Even older than the one in the Gwalior Temple in M.P. The manuscript also includes quotes from the Hindu Scriptures, square roots, arithmetic, and geometrical progressions, and measurements. Hundreds of zeroes were discovered in the text,the idea of the symbol as  we now understand and use it originated as a small dot, commonly used as a 'placeholder' to describe magnitude instructions in the ancient scheme of Indian numbers – for reference 10s, 100s, and 1000s. It features prominently in the manuscript of Bakhshali, commonly recognized as the oldest Indian document of mathematics. The fact that the Bodleian Library kept the manuscript not available to other scholars has made a great difference in the study of this fascinating manuscript as made. It seems through the years even different times local languages had been added, from Sanskrit to local languages. Due to the fragility of the leaves, it is not easy for this important manuscript to be really examined, and studied. We hope this great manuscript will be preserved for many future generations. In a statement Oxford university said,

“Scientists from the University of Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries, have used carbon dating to trace the figure’s origins to the famous ancient Indian scroll,"

The Science Museum in London displays a folio from the Bakhshali manuscript as the 

centerpiece of the main exhibition, Illuminating India: 5000 Years of Science and Innovation By exploring its important contributions to topics as varied as space exploration,mathematics, communication and engineering, the exhibition celebrates India's high 

position in the history of science and technology.