Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 75.djvu/501

Rh {|
 * In modern notation, 8,443,682,155, 8 billion, 443 million, 682 thousand, 155.
 * In Hindu, 8 padmas, 4 vyarbondas, 4 kotis, 3 prayoutas, 6 lakchas, ayoutas, 2 sahasra, 1 gata 5 dagan 5.
 * In Arabic and in later German, eight thousand thousand thousand and four hundred thousand thousand and forty-three thousand thousand and six hundred thousand and eighty-two thousand and one hundred fifty-five.
 * In Greek, eighty-four myriads of myriads and four thousand three hundred sixty-eight myriads and two thousand one hundred fifty-five.
 * }
 * In Arabic and in later German, eight thousand thousand thousand and four hundred thousand thousand and forty-three thousand thousand and six hundred thousand and eighty-two thousand and one hundred fifty-five.
 * In Greek, eighty-four myriads of myriads and four thousand three hundred sixty-eight myriads and two thousand one hundred fifty-five.
 * }
 * }
 * }

It is well established that in different parts of India the names for some of the higher powers took different forms, even the order was interchanged. However, as the significance of the name was further given by the order in reading, the variations did not lead to error. Indeed, the variation itself may have necessitated the introduction of a word to signify a vacant place or a lacking unit, with the ultimate introduction of a zero symbol for the word. The use of a special word to indicate absence of a unit is not hypothesis, but is found in verses in the ancient Indian book on astronomy, the Sourya-Siddhanta, and in numerous other ancient Hindu writings.

Brockhaus has well said that if there was any invention for which the Hindus by all their philosophy and religion were well fitted it was the invention of a symbol for zero. This making of nothingness the crux of a tremendous achievement was a step in complete harmony with the genius of the Hindu. The exact date of the birth of the zero symbol is not known, doubtless never will be known. The burden of proof points to a use of this symbol towards the beginning of the fifth century of our era. Wide-spread use in India did not occur until towards the ninth century. With nations as with individuals, the complete significance of great idea is not achieved in a moment; even as this idea itself in its unfolding required the labor of master minds of many centuries, so the appreciation and application of this advance required centuries for its completion.

The intellectual awakening of the Arabs beginning about the middle of the eighth century, manifested itself in the appearance of numerous translations of Greek, Syrian and Hindu works. Barbarians as they undoubtedly were at the period of their first conquests, the Arabs distinguished themselves by their desire for the further conquests of the science and literature of the subjugated peoples. The Persian invasion brought them close to the civilization of the Hindus and here the scholars went further than the flag. Hindu astronomy and astrology accompanied by the Hindu arithmetic were given to the scientific public in translations made at the command of one of the first great