section_path: History/India/Epigraphy
section_name: Epigraphy
paragraph_text: Epigraphy
  
  A black dot is used as a decimal placeholder in the Bakhshali manuscript, portions of which date from AD 224–993.
  
  There are numerous copper plate inscriptions, with the same small O in them, some of them possibly dated to the 6th century, but their date or authenticity may be open to doubt.
  
  A stone tablet found in the ruins of a temple near Sambor on the Mekong, Kratié Province, Cambodia, includes the inscription of "605" in Khmer numerals (a set of numeral glyphs for the Hindu–Arabic numeral system). The number is the year of the inscription in the Saka era, corresponding to a date of AD 683.
  
  The first known use of special glyphs for the decimal digits that includes the indubitable appearance of a symbol for the digit zero, a small circle, appears on a stone inscription found at the Chaturbhuj Temple, Gwalior, in India, dated AD 876.