Zero as a number — with rules for arithmetic, including negatives — was first set down by an Indian mathematician in 628 CE.
Brahmagupta's Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta defines zero and gives rules for adding, subtracting and multiplying with zero and with negative numbers ('debts').
— Brahmagupta, Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta (628 CE)
The number zero and negative numbers — foundations of all modern mathematics.
A genuine, defensible parallel.
Other cultures used a placeholder symbol for 'nothing', but Brahmagupta did something deeper: he treated zero as a number you can compute with, and gave systematic rules — a + 0 = a, a − a = 0, and the behaviour of positive ('fortunes') and negative ('debts') quantities. He even grappled with division by zero (getting it wrong, as everyone did until calculus, but asking the question).
This is rock-solid history. Combined with the Indian decimal place-value system, zero is arguably India's single greatest gift to the world — without it there is no algebra, no calculus, no computing. The only correction to popular tellings: zero was a long evolution, and Brahmagupta formalised the arithmetic rather than 'inventing nothing'.