Development of Number System

Abstract

Number is fundamental basis of the mathematics. Number and symbols are the preliminary study of mathematics learning. This study focuses to investigate the good information about number system. Thus, the main objective of the study is to explore the number perception on human mind and analysis the historical development of Hind-Arabic and Devanagari number system. The research is conducted on the basis of content analysis approach from primary and secondary data. So, design of this research is qualitative research and Historical descriptive. The source of data for this study are taken from historical documents, archives, websites, research article, related journals, authorized books, consulting with research persons, libraries, department of archaeology etc. The researcher applied open-ended interview with recourse persons to make study strong and valid. What is the origin of number? How to perceive the number in primitive people? And how was the developing phase of the Hindu-Arabic, and Devanagari number system? Be the main problem of this study. The data analysis and interpretation procedure was guided from triangulation process. For this, data from different sources explain analytically, logically, and cross matching comparatively. At last study concluded, the numbers are the result of social phenomena. The concept of number and symbols are comes from ancient human culture and human civilization. So, the numbers are invention from different human civilization but are not from mathematicians. It comes from logical thought on the objects. Each animal have the different number sense. Ancient people used concrete objects for notation the numbers before the recorded history. Primitive people makes number concept from the define collection of objects. For example; “sun” and “moon” for 1, “eyes” and “breast” for 2 and so on. The modern place-value decimal counting was developed from ancient people‟s one-to-one corresponding counting techniques. The foundation of Devanagari script is ancient Hindu (Nagari) script which was a branch of Brahmi script. Consequently, Hindu-Arabic number is revised form of ancient Hindu (Nagari) number.