When viewed in this light, the achievement of the unknown Hindu who some time in the first centuries of our era discovered the principle of position assumes the proportions of a world-event. Not only did this principle constitute a radical departure in method, but we know now that without it no progress in arithmetic was possible.
It is [in India] that the ingenious manner of expressing all numbers in ten characters originated, by assigning to them at once an absolute and a local [positional] value. a subtle and important conception, of which the simplicity is such that we can [only] with difficulty, appreciate its merit.
Aryabhata I, wrote his famous astronomical treatise, Aryabhatiya, in 499 CE when he was only 23 years old.
Chandragupta hailed from a family or tribe of peacock (mayura/मयूर in Sanskrit) tamers whence came his practical surname of Maurya.