UPSC Prelims 2026 Q7: Place-Value System in Indian Inscriptions
Consider the following statements relating to the use of the place-value system in India:
1. The earliest epigraphic use of the place-value system in India is found in the Mankani plates from Gujarat (AD 595-596).
2. In the ninth century, place-values become general in inscriptions all over India.
3. The place-values have been found in Sanskrit inscriptions in South-east Asia as early as the seventh century.
Which of the statements given above are correct?
- 1 and 2 only
- 1 and 3 only
- 2 and 3 only
- 1, 2 and 3
Answer: (d) 1, 2 and 3
Statement-wise explanation
- 1: correct — The Mankani plates (also called the Sankheda plates) are a copper-plate land grant from near Vadodara in Gujarat. Their date, year 346 of the Kalachuri-Chedi era (AD 595-596), is written in decimal place-value notation. This is the oldest dated inscription in India that uses place-value. Note the word 'epigraphic': texts such as Aryabhata's Aryabhatiya (AD 499) already worked with place-value, but the Mankani plates are the earliest example on an inscription.
- 2: correct — For about three centuries after the Mankani plates, place-value numerals turn up in Indian inscriptions only now and then. Most inscriptions still used the older Brahmi-type number signs, which had separate symbols for 10, 20, 100 and so on. By the ninth century place-value had become the normal way to write numbers in inscriptions across India. The Chaturbhuj temple inscription at Gwalior (c. AD 876, Pratihara period) belongs to this phase. It writes 270 and 50 with a small circle for zero.
- 3: correct — Sanskrit inscriptions in South-east Asia were using place-value numerals by the late seventh century. One example is the Sambor-on-Mekong inscription from Cambodia (K-127). It gives the Saka year 605, which is AD 683, with a dot for zero. Sanskrit inscriptions from Sumatra dated to the 680s also write dates this way. This is earlier than the ninth-century spread of place-value across Indian inscriptions.
How to eliminate
This question mostly needs the facts. None of the statements uses an absolute word such as 'only' or 'always' that would give it away. Some reasoning still helps. Statement 2 sounds right if you know that Gwalior's ninth-century 'zero' inscription is the best-known Indian example of place-value numerals in stone. Statement 3 sounds right if you remember that the Cambodian (Sambor) inscription of AD 683, with a dot for zero, is often cited as one of the oldest zeros in any inscription. With 2 and 3 accepted, you are left with '2 and 3 only' or 'all three'. Statement 1 is specific: it names a place, a region and a date. UPSC sometimes plants a false 'earliest' claim in a statement like this, so you have to know the fact. Fact to remember: Mankani/Sankheda plates, Gujarat, AD 595-596, earliest Indian inscription in place-value notation.
Know more
From number signs to place-value
Early Indian inscriptions, such as those at Nanaghat and in Ashoka's edicts, wrote numbers in Brahmi numerals. These used separate signs for 1-9, for each ten (10, 20, 30…), for 100 and for 1,000. A number like 346 was written as '300 + 40 + 6' with different symbols. There was no zero and no positional value.
In the decimal place-value system, nine digits and a zero are enough to write any number. Each digit's value depends on where it stands. Indian mathematicians used it in texts before it appears in stone:
| Evidence | Date | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| Aryabhatiya (Aryabhata) | AD 499 | Calculations depend on place-value |
| Mankani/Sankheda plates, Gujarat | AD 595-596 | Earliest epigraphic place-value date in India |
| Brahmasphutasiddhanta (Brahmagupta) | AD 628 | Rules for operating with zero |
| Sambor inscription, Cambodia | AD 683 (Saka 605) | Place-value with a dot for zero, South-east Asia |
| Chaturbhuj temple, Gwalior | c. AD 876 | Zero written as a circle, 9th-century spread |
| Bakhshali manuscript | date disputed (3rd-10th century) | Dot used as zero in a mathematical text |
Transmission. Arab scholars learned the system from India. In the ninth century al-Khwarizmi wrote a treatise on 'Hindu reckoning'. Through Arabic works and Latin translations the digits reached Europe, where they came to be called Hindu-Arabic numerals.
Why epigraphy matters. Copper-plate land grants carry dates in named eras such as Kalachuri-Chedi, Saka, Vikrama and Gupta. That makes them the main dated evidence for when a writing or number convention came into everyday use, as distinct from when scholars first described it.
NCERT Concepts to Revise
- Brahmi numerals: Brahmi number signs used separate symbols for 10, 20 and 100, so they contrast with place-value numerals in Statements 1 and 2.
- Hindu-Arabic numerals: Hindu-Arabic numerals grew out of Indian place-value notation, which is the system all three statements try to date and locate.
- Epigraphy: Statement 1 depends on the word 'epigraphic': it asks about the earliest inscription to use place-value, not the earliest text.
- Copper plate inscriptions: The Mankani plates in Statement 1 are a copper-plate land grant, and their Kalachuri-era date is the evidence for the claim.
- Bhaskara I: Bhaskara I (AD 629) used place-value in written texts, which helps separate textual use from the inscriptional use the statements ask about.
- Brahmagupta: Brahmagupta's seventh-century work with zero and place-value gives context for the seventh-century South-east Asian inscriptions in Statement 3.