Hindu–Arabic numeral system system is based upon ten (originally nine) different glyphs. The symbols (glyphs) used to represent the system are in principle independent of the system itself. The glyphs in actual use are descended from Brahmi numerals and have split into various typographical variants since the Middle Ages. These symbol sets can be divided into three main families: Western Arabic numerals used in the Greater Maghreb and in Europe, Eastern Arabic numerals (also called "Indic numerals") used in the Middle East, and the Indian numerals used in South Asia. The Hindu-Arabic numerals were invented by mathematicians in India. Perso-Arabic mathematicians called them
Hindu–Arabic numeral system zero. In China, Gautama Siddha introduced Hindu numerals with zero in 718, but Chinese mathematicians did not find them useful, as they had already had the decimal positional counting rods. In Chinese numerals, a circle (〇) is used to write zero in Suzhou numerals. Many historians think it was imported from Indian numerals by Gautama Siddha in 718, but some Chinese scholars think it was created from the Chinese text space filler "□". Chinese and Japanese finally adopted the Hindu–Arabic numerals in the 19th century, abandoning counting rods. The "Western Arabic" numerals as they were in common use in Europe