Arabic numerals milestone in the development of mathematics. One may distinguish between this positional "system", which is identical throughout the family, and the precise glyphs used to write the numerals, which varied regionally. The first universally accepted inscription containing the use of the 0 glyph in India is first recorded in the 9th century, in an inscription at Gwalior in Central India dated to 870. Numerous Indian documents on copper plates exist, with the same symbol for zero in them, dated back as far as the 6th century AD, but their dates are uncertain. Inscriptions in Indonesia and Cambodia dating to AD
Thai numerals oval 0 (number) when using Arabic numerals, but a small circle when using traditional numerals, and also means "centre" in other contexts. It is from Sanskrit "śūnya", as are the (context-driven) alternate names for numbers one to four given below; but not the counting 1 (number). Thai names for "N" +1 and the regular digits 2 through 9 as shown in the table, below, resemble those in Chinese varieties (e.g., Cantonese and Min Nan) as spoken in Southern China, the homeland of the overseas chinese living in South East Asia . In fact, the etymology of Thai numerals 2, 3,