Srinivasa Ramanujan: The mathematical genius who shook the world

Srinivasa Ramanujan — a mathematical legend. There has really been nobody as mathematically gifted as Srinivasa Ramanujan. On December 22, India observed the ‘National Mathematics Day’. The day is dedicated to the glory of Srinivasa Ramanujan, who was born on December 22, 1887 in Erode, Tamil Nadu.

Ramanujan is said to have solved Loney’s Trigonometry at the age of 13 without any help. Srinivasa Ramanujan was not interested in anything but mathematics. His life revolved around math, equations and formulae. In 1912, Ramanujan began working as a clerk in the Madras Port Trust. It was here that a colleague put Ramanujan in touch with Professor GH Hardy of Trinity College, Cambridge University. Srinivasa Ramanujan exchanged letters with Professor Hardy, and soon, his life was transformed.

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In 1913, Ramanujan, who had not been a university graduate, was invited by GH Hardy to Cambridge and then began their long-standing collaboration that changed the field of mathematics. He graduated from Cambridge in 1916 with a Bachelor of Arts by Research. He was also elected to the London Mathematical Society in 1917, and was a fellow of the Royal Society for his research on Elliptic Functions and the theory of numbers.

Professor G H Hardy was no less than a fan of Srinivasa Ramanujan. After his postal correspondence with Ramanujan, Professor Hardy is known to have written in his notes how Ramanujan had produced ground-breaking new theorems, including some that “defeated me completely; I had never seen anything in the least like them before.”

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Srinivasa Ramanujan died when he was only 32 years old. During his short life, Ramanujan independently compiled nearly 3,900 results, most comprising of identities and equations. Many were completely novel, like his original and highly unconventional results, such as the Ramanujan prime, the Ramanujan theta function, partition formulae and mock theta functions. All of these results have opened entire new areas of work and inspired a vast amount of further research in the world of mathematics.

A prodigious mathematician, Srinivasa Ramanujan had mesmerized the world with his mathematical research and innovative discoveries, including his theories on mathematical disciplines like number theory, infinite number series, continued fractions, etc. His ground-breaking theorems, as well as his eye for the unsolved equations, led him to be accepted as a Fellow Member of the iconic Royal Society of London, a rare honour for any Indian at the time. Even though he died at the young age of 32 years, Srinivasa Ramanujan was a worldwide phenomenon in mathematics.

It is not hidden from anybody that Srinivasa Ramanujan was a devout Hindu, who dedicated his research and theorems to his community Goddess Namakkal, the deity of Namagiri. He is also said to have famously quoted, “An equation for me has no meaning, until it expresses a thought of God.”

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Srinivasa Ramanujan was in love with mathematics. In 1918, Ramanujan was admitted to the hospital in London, when Professor G H Hardy paid a visit to him. The fellow mathematician had arrived in a taxi which was numbered ‘1729’. Professor Hardy, no less of a legend himself, was intrigued by the number. He was not fascinated by it, but rather, found the number boring.

Upon reaching Ramanujan’s room, Hardy said, “it was rather a dull number.” When Ramanujan came to know of the number, the mathematician said, “No Hardy, it is a very interesting number. It is the smallest number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways.” Ramanujan explained that 1729 is the only number that is the sum of cubes of two different pairs of numbers: 12³ + 1³, and 10³ + 9³. Ever since, the number 1729 came to be known as the ‘Hardy-Ramanujan number’.

This was how Ramanujan knew almost all of mathematics. Ramanujan shared an intimate relationship with math. Everything mathematical was a piece of cake for him. The man practically solved mathematical problems considered unsolvable back in the day in a jiffy.

Yet, the tragedy of India is that nobody really cares to know about Srinivasa Ramanujan. India’s film industry, particularly Bollywood, has no interest in popularising the man and making him an inspiration for India’s youth. Indians must be made aware of the life and legacy of Ramanujan’s genius. It is never too late to do the right thing.