Aryabhata, also called Aryabhata I or Aryabhata the Elder (born 476, possibly in Ashmaka or Kusumapura, India), was an astronomer and the earliest Indian mathematician. His work and history are available to modern scholars. He lived in Kusumapura, where he composed at least two works, Aryabhatiya (499) and the now lost Aryabhatasiddhanta.
Aryabhata gave the world the digit "0" (zero), for which he became immortal. His book, the Aryabhatiya, presented astronomical and mathematical theories in which the Earth was taken to be spinning on its axis, and the periods of the planets were given with respect to the sun (in other words, it was heliocentric). There was also a difference in some astronomical parameters. Aryabhata also gave an accurate approximation for Pi.
The place-value system, first seen in the 3rd-century Bakhshali Manuscript, was clearly in place in his work. While he did not use a symbol for zero, the French mathematician Georges Ifrah argues that zero-knowledge was implicit in Aryabhata's place-value system as a placeholder for the powers of ten with null coefficients.