South Asian Numerals
Evidence of the early use of numbers in South Asia is found on Asoka inscriptions on stone or copper, which date back to the third century BC. Numbers up to five were recorded on the inscriptions as vertical tally marks. Numbers in South Asia were also represented by symbols used in the language, and often had multiple meanings. In the sanskrit language, numbers were represented in the literary phrases and metaphors. For example, nayana (eye) or bahu (arm) were used to represent two, as in two eyes or arms; agni (fire) means three, a symbolic number in South Asian religions; adri (mountain) refers to the seven sacred mountains of the Himalayas; the words for "sky" or "space" represent zero.
The order of the figures making up a number was written in reverse to the modern numerical system, for example, the number 37 would be written as adriagni. This was part of the complexity and flexibility of South Asian languages. As another example of the symbolism of language use in South Asia, the term jati in sanskrit can mean caste, of noble lineage, and in a technical sense, the reduction of fractions to a common denominator.
During the eight century AD, Arab scholars working in South Asia on Sanskrit mathematical texts discovered the place-value notation of figures using the decimal system together with the "zero" concept. In some of these texts, numbers were set out vertically over several lines.The Arab scholars also discovered a trigonometry which incorporated the use of sines. Arab scholars later developed and transmitted these concepts to the Western world. The South Asian numerals then became known as Arabic numerals.
However, the remote origin of these numerals has never been discovered. Numerals were used where there were no alphabets or before alphabets were evolved in ancient China or Egypt.