“It may perhaps be argued, by way of objection, that it is not ascertained as yet at what period of antiquity the nought occurs for the first time in Indian manuscripts or inscriptions. Be that is it may, the case represents circumstantial evidence of too strong a character not to carry a conviction of probability with it. According to Max Müller “the two words ‘cipher’ and ‘zero’, which are in reality but one…are sufficient to prove that our figures are borrowed from Arabs.” Cipher is the Arabic “cifron”, and means empty, a translation of the Sanscrit name of the nought “synya”, he says. The Arabs had their figures from Hindustan, and never claimed the discovery for themselves. As to the Pythagoreans, we need but turn to the ancient manuscripts of Boëthius’s Geometry, composed in the sixth century, to find in the Pythagorean numerals the 1 and the nought, as the first and final cipher. And Porphyry, who quotes from the Pythagorean Moderatus, says that the numerals of Pythagoras were hieroglyphical symbols, by means whereof he explained ideas concerning the nature of things.”
Now, if the most ancient Indian manuscripts show as yet no trace of decimal notation in them, Max Müller states very clearly that until now he has found but nine letters, (the initials of the Sanscrit numerals), in them – on the other hand we have records as ancient, to supply the wanted proof. We speak of the sculptures and the sacred imagery in the most ancient temples of the far East. Pythagoras derived his knowledge from India; and we find Professor Max Müller corroborating this statement, at least so far as allowing the Neo-Pythagoreans to have been the first teachers of “ciphering” among the Greeks and Romans; that “they, at Alexandria, or in Syria, became acquainted with the Indian figures, and adapted them to the Pythagorean abacus”, (our figures).
This cautious allowance implies that Pythagoras himself was acquainted with but nine figures. So that we might reasonably answer that although we possess no certain proof that the decimal notation was known to Pythagoras, who lived on the very close of the archaic ages, we yet have sufficient evidence to show that the full numbers, as given by Boëthius, were known to the Pythagoreans, even before Alexandria was built. This evidence we find in Aristotle, who says that some philosophers hold that ideas and numbers are of the same nature, and amount to TEN in all.” This, we believe, will be sufficient to show that the decimal notation was known among them at least as early as four centuries B.C., for Aristotle does not seem to treat the question as an innovation of the “Neo-Pythagoreans.”
Besides, as we have remarked above, the representations of the archaic deities, on the walls of the temples, are of themselves quite suggestive enough. So, for instance, Vishnu is represented in the Kurmavatara, (his second avatar), as a tortoise sustaining a circular pillar, on which the semblance of himself, (Maya, or the illusion), sits with all his attributes.
While one hand holds a flower, another a club, the third a shell, the fourth, generally the upper one, or at the right – holds on his forefinger, extended as the cipher 1, the chakra, or discus, which resembles a ring, or a wheel, and might be taken for the nought. In his first avatar, the Matsyavatam, when emerging from the fish’s mouth, he is represented in the same position. The ten-armed Durga of Bengal; the ten-headed Ravana, the giant; Parvati – as Durga, Indra, and Indrani, are found with this attribute, which is a perfect representation of the Maypole.
The holiest of the temples among the Hindus, are those of Jaggernath. This deity is worshipped equally by all the sects of India, and Jaggernath is named “The Lord of the World.” He is the god of the Mysteries, and his temples, which are most numerous in Bengal, are all of pyramidal form.”
H. P. Blavatsky
The Mark Of God: Understanding Your "I AM Presence" 