The concept of shunya led to the concept of understanding nothingness. It later on led to it being represented by the symbol '0' now known as zero. It was during the period 5th - 2nd century BC that Indian scholars started using the Sanskrit term sunya to refer zero or void.  It was Aryabhatta who in 498 AD, introduced the concept of  'each next place is ten times the preceding place', the basis of the decimal system. It was Brahamgupta who in 628 AD denoted nothingness by the symbol of a dot below a number which subsequently became the present day '0' or zero and also formulated the rules governing the use of zero. Zero is both a numerical digit and a number. The dictionary defines it as the arithmetical symbol 0 denoting the absence of all magnitude or quantity. 

Shunya does not mean void but means devoid. It generally means that which is indestructible. For that which is imaginary and without boundaries cannot be  captured nor destroyed. But it exists and that is the beauty of the concept of shunya. It was Nagarjuna, the great Indian philospher, who first propounded the theory of Shunyavada. Shunya is at the same time, Maya the imaginary appearances and also Brahmana the reality. It is

In mathematics Zero is an integer before the number 1. Zero is neither positive or negative. Zero is an even number because it is divisible by 2.The position of zero determines its value. The number 04 is different from the number 40.  Zero functions as a place holder. The position of zero determines the value of a number. A less zero in our salary figure would be unacceptable to us. 

Till India invented the zero symbol, quantities were represented by variety of symbols and figures. It made arithmetic operations very awkward to handle. Other civilizations were also grappling with the concept of zero but were not able to either symbolize or understand the idea of shunya or zero.

It was Brahmgupta who in the mid seventh century formalized the arithmetic operations using zero. These concepts took centuries to reach Europe through the Arabs. Zero reached Baghdad  in 773 AD and the mathematicians in Arabia developed their numbers on the Indian system or the Hindu system as it was then called. In the ninth century, the Persian scientist Mohammed ibn-Musa al-Khawarizmi was the first one to work in equations that equaled  zero, known as algebra in mathematics, and wrote a book. He called zero as sifr. By 879 AD zero was being written as it is now written. His book was translated and reached Europe and finally reached England in the mid twelveth century.

The Italian mathematician, Fibonacci, built on al-Khawarizmi's work in his book Liber Abaci in 1202. Another great mathematician Rene Descartes, the founder of the Cartesian coordinate system, whose origin is (0,0) on the graphs. It was Newton and Leibniz who developed calculus who finaliized the understanding of zero.

While addition, subtracting and division are simple it is division by zero which is complex and difficult to understand. For example how do we find the rate of change  of a variable with reference to another variable which in the denominator gets  reduced till it becomes zero. For example the change of speed of a car in a period of time which can be made smaller and smaller till it touches zero. That is where calculus handles zero. It gave rise to the development of almost all branches of science, technology and economics.

Today zero is used in computer languages. Its importance is taken for granted. Yet its development is spread over centuries and continents. It is a matter of pride for us that it was an Indian mind which thought about nothingness in form of shunya and also used it as a value multiplier in mathematics. Imagine something which itself has no value imparts value upon proper placement in numbers.

So next time someone asks you what is India's contribution to the world you can proudly say it is zero.