What ೦ means
It means zero and marks an empty place.
In Kannada numerals, ೧೦ means ten: the final ೦ shows that there are no units in the ones place.
What does the historical record date?
The Gudnapur inscription lists 1–9, not zero.
The Gudnapur inscription is thought to date to the early sixth century. Its list runs from 1 through 9, so it cannot date ೦. By around 650 AD, Indian mathematics used zero as a number and to mark an empty place.
Kannada digits belong to the wider Indian tradition traced to Brahmi, an ancient numeral system.
Don't confuse it with
2Questions people ask
1Why does ೦ show as a box on some devices?
Because that device's fonts have no glyph for it. The character is still correct and still copies correctly — the box is a missing glyph, not a broken character.
How to type ೦
Windows (Word)
Alt+XType 0CE6, then Alt+X to get ೦.
Windows
Win+Rrun charmap for the full table, or use the emoji picker's Ω symbols tab (Win + .).
macOS
Control+Command+SpaceOpen the character viewer and search “kannada digit zero”.
Linux
Ctrl+Shift+UType 0ce6, then Enter or Space.
HTML
೦CSS
\0CE6Kannada keyboard
Enable a Kannada keyboard layout and use its key mapped to ೦. CLDR 26 lists it in Kannada mappings for macOS and Windows.
Codes and encoding1 code points
HTML decimal
೦
HTML hex
೦
CSS content
content: "\0CE6";
Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.
URL encoded
%E0%B3%A6
1
On screen
1
Code points
1
JS .length
3
UTF-8 bytes
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.