Dear Ankur, Different newspapers today covered the news of Carbon dating the Bakhshali manuscripts which "revealed" the earliest origins of zero symbol. Amongst the scientific community the existence of the manuscript is well known.
The manuscript was found by a farmer in a village called Bakhshali, in what is now Pakistan, in 1881 before being acquired by the Indologist Rudolf Hoernle, who presented it to the Bodleian Libraries in 1902. For more information please visit the following URLs: <http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/oldest-recorded-zero-in-indian-text-is-centuries-older-than-initially-thought/story-FZxQpED58gi9CD8hd7ddkK.html> http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/oldest-recorded-zero-in-indian-text-is-centuries-older-than-initially-thought/story-FZxQpED58gi9CD8hd7ddkK.html <https://amp.theguardian.com/science/2017/sep/14/much-ado-about-nothing-ancient-indian-text-contains-earliest-zero-symbol> https://amp.theguardian.com/science/2017/sep/14/much-ado-about-nothing-ancient-indian-text-contains-earliest-zero-symbol http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-41265057 The URL http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/HistTopics/Bakhshali_manuscript.html would give you some extra information including some examples of using Bakhshali formula. In a Google search I came across a book published by Prof. H. Dutta where he mentioned about the archaeological findings at Golaghat. This book is out of print but available in different libraries abroad. I was able to locate the thesis submitted by Dr. Dutta and also located the place where this archaeological finding was stored. I requested Aamir to get in touch with the museum at Jorhat and take some photograph of the same. The main problem which we are facing now is that there is no definite mention of the age of the archaeological inscriptions. We have contacted several experts across India to determine the language and the age of the inscriptions. The hunt for experts is still on. In the stone slab discovered in Assam the "numerical zero" is represented by a dot. I shall revert when we have more information. Greetings, Wahid da PS: The following URL might be interest to you. Ancient varsity may be much older than believed <https://www.telegraphindia.com/1170914/jsp/frontpage/story_173061.jsp> : Nitish - CM's Nalanda revelation From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: donderdag 14 september 2017 22:55 To: Support A. Child; North East; Friendsof Assam NE Subject: [SupportAChild-Assam] Found: The Oldest Example of the Symbol for Zero Dear all A few months back , there was an article by me , below , which was also published in Assam Tribune Horizon. The article was about the finding of a stone slab containing the numeral zero somewhere in Golaghat distric of Assam. Today , there is another news item reported on the finding in a manuscript somewhere in Northern region of India Pakistan. http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/oldest-example-zero-symbol-indian-manuscript I hope , the claim from Assam will also be corroborated - whcih is considered from 3rd centrury AD Thanks Ankur My original article Searching for the First Zero <http://ankurbora.blogspot.com/2017/02/searching-for-first-zero.html> Searching for the First Zero Ankur Bor... --- This email has been checked for viruses by AVG. http://www.avg.com
