550 – 560s

Events in the 550s 2

• 320 – 550 Gupta Empire — India's Golden Age Peak of science, mathematics, art and literature The Gupta Empire presided over a golden age of Indian civilisation. Scholars made landmark advances in mathematics and astronomy — including the concept of zero and the decimal place-value system — while Sanskrit literature, sculpture and temple architecture reached classical heights.
• 476 – 550 Aryabhata and the concept of zero Indian mathematics transforms the world The mathematician-astronomer Aryabhata (b. 476) and his successors developed the decimal place-value system and the use of zero as a number — innovations that, transmitted through the Arab world to Europe, became the foundation of modern mathematics. Aryabhata also proposed that the Earth rotates on its axis.