Imagine can you make any mathematical calculation if you don’t have zero! Of course you can calculate but the procedure would be much difficult. But there were days there was no zero. People knew that they had nothing but they were not able to express it mathematically as they did not have any mathematical notation for it.

When and who did the invention of zero is in dark till date but it is established across the world that zero was invented in India. There are stories telling that zero was first invented in Babylon and second time it was invented by Mayans but both the inventions could not influenced the numeral system and forgotten by the world.

Hindus invented third time zero in India. It is still a question that how Hindus invented zero. Most of the scholars are of the opinion that zero was invented around the middle of the fifth century.

According to wikipedia:

“In 498, Indian mathematician and astronomer Aryabhatta stated that ‘Sthanam sthanam dasa gunam’ or place to place in ten times in value, which may be the origin of the modern decimal based place value notation; his positional number system included a zero in his letter code for numerals (which allowed him to express numbers as words) in his mathematical astronomy text Aryabhatiya. In the ‘Bakhshali’ Manuscript, whose date is uncertain but which is believed by some scholars to pre-date Aryabhatta, zero is symbolized and used as a number; if the early dating is accepted, it would also predate Brahmagupta.

“The first unambiguous use of a decimal zero and the rules governing its use appear in Brahmagupta's Brahmasphuta Siddhanta, along with consideration of negative numbers and the algebraic rules. By the 7th century, when Brahmagupta lived, some concept of zero had clearly reached Cambodia, and documentation shows the idea later spreading to China and the Islamic world.”

This time the invention of zero influenced the numeral system and the reason behind it is unlike the Babylonian and Mayan zero, the Hindu zero symbol came to be understood as meaning “nothing.” This is probably because of the use of number words that preceded the symbolic zero.

Arab countries in the Middle East also got their zero from Indian scholars.

Lastly in the 12th century zero reached Western Europe.