A mathematician in 628 would have abaci lying around. Maybe not lying around but they’d exist in abundance, I would have to imagine—maybe he had a favorite, with a frame and tablet made of bone, counters made of stone, and probably of the Chinese variety [more than 7 rods, rounded beads, split into two decks: an upper deck with two beads and a lower one with five; most historians agree the similarities between this and the Roman models (among others) result from humans having five fingers and using those digits to create the bases and place values of our mathematical systems, though the two civilizations did trade with each other] given how close, relatively, good Brahmagupta lived to China—and after an earthquake lost to history, this abacus found itself on its side, though, this would be a blessing in disguise of the Chinese variety of abacus, because restoring it from a number, to, well--he spat, removing his glare from the abacus, stood, stomped from the contemplative circles he’d been making in the sand; turned and screamed at the cat while pointing at the abacus “So what have they been calling that, then?!?”
The cat, who hadn’t decided on a name yet, yawned and replied “Nothing.”
“No, I mean, what do they call the absence of a number?”
“Nothing.”
Brahmagupta frowned, wondering if the cat was being coy. “We have 2, 1, then…nothing?”
“Well, kind of. The Babylonians and a bunch of other people use a place value—”
“You think I don’t know this?”
“—system, but they just leave a space, which…I guess you also know. You know about Aryabhatta?”
“Yes, because he keeps copying my abacus studies, which is a point I was going to make—”
“Well, look at the abacus. Starting position means no amount represented, or none, which…do you need a number for ‘none’? Y’all have words for each of the groups of ten.” The cat walked over the where the mathematician was standing and began walking around him in circles.
“I think we…might need a number for none? I think it’s a cool idea. I’ve just been putting dots under numbers to show where spaces would go when I run out of parchment? But I also had this really cool thought, what’s in between the dot—” and the mathematician looked down at his feet.
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