Sinhala numerals to record donations given by royals and other people who were belonged to the upper echelon of ancient Sinhala society to Buddhist temples. Brahmi numerals are ancestors of Arabic numerals which are used presently worldwide. Brahmi numerals had symbols for 10,100, and 1000. Number 1 and 10 in Brahmi have not been found in Sri Lanka up to now. Therefore, shapes of these two numerals have been hypothesized taking into consideration of shapes of Brahmi Number 1 and 10 found in India without physical evidence . Sinhala rock inscriptions suddenly become barren of numerals from A.D. 400 onwards. Tradition of
History of the Hindu–Arabic numeral system History of the Hindu–Arabic numeral system The Hindu–Arabic numeral system is a decimal place-value numeral system that uses a zero glyph as in "205". Its glyphs are descended from the Indian Brahmi numerals. The full system emerged by the 8th to 9th centuries, and is first described in Al-Khwarizmi's "On the Calculation with Hindu Numerals" (ca. 825), and Al-Kindi's four-volume work "On the Use of the Indian Numerals" (ca. 830). Today the name "Hindu–Arabic numerals" is usually used. Historians trace modern numerals in most languages to the Brahmi numerals, which were in use around the middle of the 3rd century