Gujarati digit zero

Switch to a Gujarati keyboard or input method editor.

A Latin keyboard’s 0 key enters Latin zero, not ૦. Gujarati input layouts and input method editors offer the Gujarati digit; if 0 appears, the active layout is still Latin.

Which zero should I use in Gujarati text?

Use ૦ with Gujarati digits; use 0 with Latin digits.

Both represent zero, but they are distinct characters. Gujarati fonts can draw ૦ with slightly different outlines; its numeric value stays the same. Using two scripts in one number can affect exact text matching.

Where did Gujarati zero come from?

Gujarati zero belongs to a broader Indian numeral history.

In India’s place-value system, a digit’s position sets its value: zero first marked an empty place and later also became a number used in arithmetic. The Bakhshali manuscript, an Indian mathematical text, preserves a written zero as a dot; some leaves have been dated as early as the 3rd–4th centuries. A legal charter recording a donation, dated 594 CE, has been read as evidence for Indian place-value notation, though its date is disputed. The Gwalior stone inscription from 876 CE is the first dated, broadly accepted Indian record showing zero.

Gujarati script developed from Devanagari, and its numerals belong to the wider Indian numeral tradition. Gujarati script also served bookkeeping and personal correspondence into the mid-19th century. In spoken Gujarati numbers, when the second-to-last digit is zero, the conjunction meaning “and” may come before the final digit.