--- title: Ancient India: Ashoka, zero and our numbers — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Ancient India: Ashoka, zero and our numbers», a lesson of the history course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Ashoka, the grandson of Chandragupta Maurya, conquered the land of Kalinga in a terrible war in which very many people died. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/8-ancient-india-ashoka-zero-and-our-numbers/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [History](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/) / Ancient India: Ashoka, zero and our nu… # Ancient India: Ashoka, zero and our numbers Lesson 8 of the history course of Mova's primary school: 17 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/history/8-ancient-india-ashoka-zero-and-our-numbers/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/8-ancient-india-ashoka-zero-and-our-numbers/0/) — Ashoka, the grandson of Chandragupta Maurya, conquered the land of Kalinga in a terrible war in which very many people died. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/8-ancient-india-ashoka-zero-and-our-numbers/2/) — He had messages carved on rocks and tall pillars across India, asking people to be kind, respect all religions and treat animals well, and he sent teachers to spread the Buddha's teaching as far as Sri Lanka. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/8-ancient-india-ashoka-zero-and-our-numbers/3/) — Later, under the Gupta kings, came a golden age of science and art. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/8-ancient-india-ashoka-zero-and-our-numbers/4/) — Indian mathematicians treated zero as a real number, and the digits 0 to 9 on your calculator were invented in India. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/8-ancient-india-ashoka-zero-and-our-numbers/5/) — Think of writing one hundred and five: without a zero, how would you tell 105 from 15? - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/8-ancient-india-ashoka-zero-and-our-numbers/6/) — That little circle is one of the cleverest ideas ever, and it reached Europe through Arab scholars, which is why people wrongly call the digits Arabic. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/8-ancient-india-ashoka-zero-and-our-numbers/7/) — Ashoka, Chandragupta Maurya's grandson, conquered the land of Kalinga in a terrible war in which very many people died. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/8-ancient-india-ashoka-zero-and-our-numbers/8/) — After the war Ashoka had messages carved on rocks and tall stone pillars across India, asking people to be kind, respect all religions and treat animals well. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/8-ancient-india-ashoka-zero-and-our-numbers/10/) — About 1,600 years ago the Gupta kings ruled northern India in a time of science, art and poetry often called a golden age. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/8-ancient-india-ashoka-zero-and-our-numbers/11/) — Indian mathematicians were the first to treat zero as a real number you can add and subtract with, writing it as a dot or a circle. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/8-ancient-india-ashoka-zero-and-our-numbers/12/) — The digits 0 to 9 that we use were invented in India and passed on by Arab scholars to Europe; they are often called Arabic numerals, but they began in India. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/8-ancient-india-ashoka-zero-and-our-numbers/13/) — The mathematician and astronomer Aryabhata, about 1,500 years ago, explained that the Earth spins and worked out the value of pi very accurately. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/8-ancient-india-ashoka-zero-and-our-numbers/14/) — An early form of chess called chaturanga was played in India about 1,500 years ago, with pieces like elephants, chariots and foot soldiers. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/8-ancient-india-ashoka-zero-and-our-numbers/15/) — Chess travelled to Persia, the Arab world and Europe and changed into the game we play today; the chaturanga elephant, standing next to the horse, became today's bishop. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/8-ancient-india-ashoka-zero-and-our-numbers/16/) — India traded pepper, cinnamon, cotton cloth and precious stones with Rome, Arabia and China; pepper did not grow in Italy, so in Rome it was rare and costly. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/8-ancient-india-ashoka-zero-and-our-numbers/17/) — India has always been home to many peoples, languages and religions: Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism began there, Islam and Christianity came later from other lands, and the Sikh faith began in India about 500 years ago. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/8-ancient-india-ashoka-zero-and-our-numbers/18/) — Ashoka's lion pillar is today a national emblem of India. - ← previous: [Ancient India: the Indus cities and the first kingdoms](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/7-ancient-india-the-indus-cities-and-the-first-kingdoms/) - next →: [Ancient China: dynasties, the First Emperor and the Great Wall](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/9-ancient-china-dynasties-the-first-emperor-and-the-great-wall/) - ↑ back to [History](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/)