Śūnyam

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Śūnyam. In Indian mathematics, the sign for ‘nought’ or zero. Its decimal potential, in combination with integers, enabled the Hindu imagination to create vast numbers—simply by adding to 1, 2, etc., an indefinite series of zeros. Equally, the emptiness of zero opened up the conceptualization of Brahman without attributes (nirguṇa), and pointed towards śūnyatā in Buddhism. Among Bāuls, the guru is sometimes called śūnya.