Abstract
The decimal place-value notation with a zero symbol (called bindu or a point) is found to be used in the Yavanajataka (A.D.269/270) of Sphujidhvaja, while the recognition of the zero as a number to be an object of mathematical operations can be attested in Var hamihira's Pancasiddhantika (ca.A.D.505). In this paper I have proposed the hypothesis that a place-value notation with a zero symbol and computation on board by using that notation, both of which existed in India in the early centuries of the Christian era, were the necessary conditions for the recognition of zero as a number.
