
Author: A K Bag
S R Sharma/
Publisher: Aryan
Year: 2003
Language: English
Pages: 288
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8173052409
Description
The concept of sunya in India has a long history and varied manifestations in different dimensions, in mathematics, in philosophy and in mysticism. In mathematical literature it is used in the sense of zero having no substantial numeral value of its won but playing the key role in the system of decimal notation, to express all numbers with nine digits, one to one and the sunya as the tenth. The application of sunya in this system of notation was discovered in India some time in the pre-Christian era. Its concretization in the form of a dot or a small circle and its use in decimal place value system was first transmitted to the Middle-East and thence to Europe to supplant the Greek and Roman Systems, and the whole world slowly recognized it as the most scientific system of numeration.
The present volume is the outcome of a joint seminar organized by Indian National Science Academy and Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts.