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The ancestor of the digits.
Also known as: Brahmi numerals, Early Indian numerals
The numeral signs of the Brāhmī script, from which the Hindu-Arabic digits descend.
Write numbers in Brāhmī inscriptions from the third century BCE onward.
Contexts: Mathematics, History
Not a place-value system: a separate sign existed for twenty, for thirty and for each hundred, so the notation is closer to Roman numerals than to the decimal system its descendants became.
Contexts: Mathematics, History
The forms of the unit signs are the recognised ancestors of the digits used worldwide, transmitted through Arabic intermediaries; the place-value principle and the zero were added later within India.
Contexts: Mathematics, History
Short vertical strokes for the first three units, then separate single glyphs of curved and angular strokes for four upward, for each multiple of ten and for each hundred, set in a row with no zero and no place value.