GUWAHATI, March 31 � While the invention of �zero� is credited to Aryabhatta around 500 A.D, an Assamese writer and filmmaker has challenged the theory, claiming that zero was actually invented in Assam.
The filmmaker, Ashok Sharma, asserts that he has archaeological evidence that the invention of zero happened in Assam long before the birth of both Aryabhatta and Brahmagupta.
�The evidence of�the practice of using zero during the period of 2nd -3rd�A.D. in Assam has been found in Golaghat district. The date of the stone inscription having zero has been confirmed by well-known archaeologist Dr HN Bhuyan. The digits inscribed on the piece of stone were 2, 3, 1, 0, 7 and 8 respectively and was deciphered by Dr. Dharmeswar Chutia,� Sharma told The Assam Tribune.
Reasoning that the ancient civilization of ancient Kamrupa (Assam) was as old as the Indus Valley Civilization, Sharma said that the Rig-Veda culture and the Harappa and Mohenjodaro civilization did not influence the Kamrupa civilization.
�This is not my version; rather all these are recorded facts. There were trade centres in ancient Kamrupa, and Kamrupa had contacts with other countries as well prior to forging ties with India. There is every possibility that the idea of zero moved from Assam to then India. As historians, archeologists and scholars did not pay much attention to the civilization of Kamrup which it so rightfully deserved, it led to the erroneous conclusion that Aryabhatta and Brahmagupta were the inventors of zero,� Sharma said.
According to Sharma, the inventor of zero was an Assamese mathematician and since then the practice of using zero has been continued till now.
�Unfortunately, due to lack of extensive research, we still do not know who invented zero in Assam, and exactly when. But it is sure that Aryabhatta and Brahmagupta were not the first mathematicians to invent zero,� Sharma added.
Sharma said that his claim was based on facts and data, and �it is for scholars and historians to establish the veracity or otherwise of the claim.�
�If my findings are found to be true, it would be our great privilege to have an Assamese mathematician as the inventor of zero,� Sharma said.