everal _yagnas_ or religious sacrifices," and numerals are
to be seen in no less than thirty places.[76]

There is considerable dispute as to what numerals are really found in these
inscriptions, owing to the difficulty of deciphering them; but the
following, which have been copied from a rubbing, are probably number
forms:[77]

[Illustration]

The inscription itself, so important as containing the earliest
considerable Hindu numeral system connected with our own, is of sufficient
interest to warrant reproducing part of it in facsimile, as is done on page
24.

{24}

[Illustration]

The next very noteworthy evidence of the numerals, and this quite complete
as will be seen, is found in certain other cave inscriptions dating back to
the first or second century A.D. In these, the Nasik[78] cave inscriptions,
the forms are as follows:

[Illustration]

From this time on, until the decimal system finally adopted the first nine
characters and replaced the rest of the Br[=a]hm[=i] notation by adding the
zero, the progress of these forms is well marked. It is therefore well to
present synoptically the best-known specimens that have come down to us,
and this is done in the table on page 25.[79]

{25}

TABLE SHOWING THE PROGRESS OF NUMBER FORMS IN INDIA

NUMERALS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 200 1000
A['s]oka[80] [Illustration]
['S]aka[81] [Illustration]
A['s]oka[82] [Illustration]
N[=a]gar[=i][83] [Illustration]
Nasik[84] [Illustration]
K[s.]atrapa[85] [Illustration]
Ku[s.]ana [86] [Illustration]
Gupta[87] [Illustration]
Valhab[=i][88] [Illustration]
Nepal [89] [Illustration]
Kali[.n]ga[90] [Illustration]
V[=a]k[=a][t.]aka[91] [Illustration]

[Most of these numerals are given by Buehler, loc. cit., Tafel IX.]

{26} With respect to these numerals it should first be noted that no zero
appears in the table, and as a matter of fact none existed in any of the
cases cited. It was therefore impossible to have any place value, and the
numbers like twenty, thirty, and other multiples of ten, one hundred, and
so on, required separate symbols except where they were written out in
words. The ancient Hindus had no less than twenty of these symbols,[92] a
number that was afterward greatly increased. The following a