Q. Consider the following statements relating to the use of the place-value system in India:
1. The earliest epigraphic use of the place-value system in India is found in the Mankani plates from Gujarat (AD 595-596).
2. In the ninth century, place-values become general in inscriptions all over India.
3. The place-values have been found in Sanskrit inscriptions in South-east Asia as early as the seventh century.
Which of the statements given above are correct?
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 1 and 3 only
(c) 2 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3

Answer : D

Explanation:

Statement I is correct: The Mankani copper-plate charter from Gujarat (dated to Kalachuri Era 346, which corresponds to 595–596 CE) is recognized by epigraphists as containing the earliest extant inscriptional evidence recording a date using a decimal place-value notation (346) in India.
Statement II is correct: While the place-value system was utilized by Indian mathematicians and astronomers by the 5th–6th centuries, its adoption in everyday administrative royal charters was gradual. By the 9th century CE, the older enciphered Brahmi numbering system (which used separate, unique symbols for 10, 20, 100, 1000, etc.) was almost completely phased out, and the decimal place-value system became standard in inscriptions throughout India.
Statement III is correct: Due to India's deep maritime trade and cultural links with Southeast Asia, the place-value system spread there remarkably early. Famous Sanskrit and Old Khmer inscriptions from Cambodia (Sambor) and Indonesia (Palembang), dated to the Saka Era years 605 and 606 (683–684 CE / 7th century), clearly exhibit the use of the decimal place-value system along with a zero symbol.

Source: https://www.wisdomlib.org/history/essay/impact-of-vedic-culture-on-society/d/doc1121343.html
https://ijarsct.co.in/Paper5166.pdf