Bakhshali manuscript

Bakhshali manuscript
Bakhshali manuscript
Bodleian Library, University of Oxford
	One of the Bakhshali manuscripts.
Type	Mathematical text
Date	AD 224–383/ 885–993 (proposed carbon-dates, recently disputed on methodological grounds: Plofker et al. 2017, Houben 2018 §3)
Place of origin	Bakhshali, (present-day) Pakistan
Language(s)	Sanskrit with influence from local dialects
Material	Birch bark
Format	Seventy leaves
Condition	Too fragile to be handled
Script	Sharada script
Contents	maths text
Discovered	1881

The Bakhshali manuscript is an ancient Indian mathematical text written on birch bark that was found in 1881 in the village of Bakhshali, Mardan (near Peshawar in present-day Pakistan, historical Gandhara). It is perhaps "the oldest extant manuscript in Indian mathematics".^[4] For some portions a carbon-date was proposed of AD 224–383 while for other portions a carbon-date as late as AD 885–993 in a recent study, but the dating has been criticised by specialists on methodological grounds (Plofker et al. 2017^[1] and Houben 2018 §3^[2]). The manuscript contains the earliest known Indian use of a zero symbol.^[5]^[6] It is written in a form of literary Sanskrit influenced by contemporary dialects.

^ ^a ^b Plofker, Kim, Agathe Keller, Takao Hayashi, Clemency Montelle, and Dominik Wujastyk. 2017. "The Bakhshālī Manuscript: A Response to the Bodleian Library’s Radiocarbon Dating.” History of Science in South Asia, 5.1: 134–150. https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/hssa/index.php/hssa/article/view/22
^ ^a ^b Jan E.M. Houben "Linguistic Paradox and Diglossia: on the emergence of Sanskrit and Sanskritic language in Ancient India." De Gruyter Open Linguistics (Topical Issue on Historical Sociolinguistic Philology, ed. by Chiara Barbati and Christian Gastgeber.) OPLI – Vol. 4, issue 1: 1–18. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/opli-2018-0001
^ All the pages have been photographed which are available in the book by Hayashi
^ Cite error: The named reference HayashiEncy was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Devlin, Hannah (13 September 2017). "Much ado about nothing: ancient Indian text contains earliest zero symbol". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 14 September 2017.
^ "Carbon dating finds Bakhshali manuscript contains oldest recorded origins of the symbol 'zero'". Bodleian Libraries. 14 September 2017. Retrieved 13 January 2023.

[journals.library.ualberta.ca-1] Plofker, Kim, Agathe Keller, Takao Hayashi, Clemency Montelle, and Dominik Wujastyk. 2017. "The Bakhshālī Manuscript: A Response to the Bodleian Library’s Radiocarbon Dating.” History of Science in South Asia, 5.1: 134–150. https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/hssa/index.php/hssa/article/view/22

[doi.org-2] Jan E.M. Houben "Linguistic Paradox and Diglossia: on the emergence of Sanskrit and Sanskritic language in Ancient India." De Gruyter Open Linguistics (Topical Issue on Historical Sociolinguistic Philology, ed. by Chiara Barbati and Christian Gastgeber.) OPLI – Vol. 4, issue 1: 1–18. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/opli-2018-0001

[3] All the pages have been photographed which are available in the book by Hayashi

[HayashiEncy-4] Cite error: The named reference HayashiEncy was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[Devlin-5] Devlin, Hannah (13 September 2017). "Much ado about nothing: ancient Indian text contains earliest zero symbol". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 14 September 2017.

[Bodleian_Library-6] "Carbon dating finds Bakhshali manuscript contains oldest recorded origins of the symbol 'zero'". Bodleian Libraries. 14 September 2017. Retrieved 13 January 2023.

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