Around 500 AD, with the rise and development of economy and Brahmin culture, Punjab in the northwest of Indian subcontinent was in a leading position in mathematics. Astronomer Ayerbhardt made a new breakthrough in simplifying numbers: he put them in a box. If there is a symbol in the first box, such as a dot representing 1, then the same dot in the second box represents 10, and the dot in the third box represents 100. In this way, not only the digital symbols themselves, but also their position order is of great significance. Later, Indian scholars introduced the symbol zero.

It can be said that these symbols and expressions are the ancient ancestors of Arabic numerals today. In other words, Indians are the inventors of Arabic numerals. The original Indian numeral prototype Arabic numerals were invented by Indians, but why not call them Indian numerals? Around the 3rd century BC, the ancient Indians finally invented the number symbol 1 to 9.

But there is no "0" at this time. The appearance of "0" was more than 1000 years after the Gupta dynasty in India invented the digital symbol 1-9. When it first appeared, it was not a circle, but a dot. Because Indian numerals are simple and convenient, Arabs quickly used them and spread them to Europe. Compared with the long and complicated Roman numerals, this numerical counting method has great advantages and has become popular in Europe.

1202, Italy published the Book of Calculations, which systematically introduced and applied Indian numbers, marking the official recognition of new numbers in Europe. Ever since Arabs brought Indian numerals, Europeans have always called them "Arabic numerals". In other words, Arabic numerals originated in India, but spread in all directions through Arabs. This is why people later mistakenly thought that Arabic numerals were invented by Arabs. So it is usually called "Arabic numerals" by later generations.