The concept of zero as a number
and not merely a symbol for separation is
attributed to India, where, by the 9th century
AD, practical calculations were carried out using
zero, which was treated like any other number,
even in case of division. The credit for inventing
'zero (O)' goes to Indian mathematicians and the
number zero first appears in a book about
'arithmetic written by an Indian mathematician
Braha-Dasgupta'. Zero signifies 'nothing and the
current definition call it an 'additive identity'.
The Indian math and Bhaskara, Mahavira and
Brahamagupta worked on this new number and
they tried to explain its properties. It wasn't that
somebody suddenly came up with the idea of the
zero and the mathematicians throughout the
world accepted it. Around 500 AD Aryabhatta,
an Indian mathematician devised a number
system and the symbol he used for the number
zero was also the number used to represent an
unknown element (x).