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?

All three statements are historically correct. The Mankani (or Sankheda) copper plates of Gujarat (595-596 CE) contain the earliest known Indian epigraphic use of the decimal place-value system with the number 346. By the ninth century, the system had become widespread in Indian inscriptions. Sanskrit inscriptions from South-east Asia (especially Cambodia and Indonesia, such as the Sambor inscription of 683 CE) show the use of place-value notation from the seventh century onwards, evidencing the spread of Indian mathematical knowledge to the region.