Srinivasa Ramanujan. This name don't need any introduction. The man who faced tremendous struggle in his short but big life. The Man who lived only for 32 years but have done extraordinary work in the field of mathematics without any formal education in mathematics unlike any other mathematician in the History. Whose work had formed basis of most of the advanced theories like superstring theory, multidimensional physics and most noteworthy modular function. Which could lead to the time travel, study of gravity and Many futuristic technologies.
Srinivasa Ramanujan was born on 22nd December 1887 at Erode, Tamil Nadu. His father K.Srinivasa lyenger was a clerk at cloth shop. His mother Komaltummal was housewife and used to sing in the temples. Srinivasa Ramanujan spent most of his childhood at Kumbakonam, the village somewhere in Tamilnadu, well known as “Temple City”.
Since his childhood Ramanujan had a great interest in study, mainly in mathematics. At very young age, he used to write most complex equations on the floors of temples. In his school “Kangayan Primary School” Ramanujan performed excellently. He had a habit of asking weird questions like ‘Who was the first man on the Earth ‘, ‘ What if we divide a number by 0 ‘, and many such to his teachers that teachers were unable to answer. At the age of 10, in November 1897, he passed his primary examinations with the best scores in the district. At the age of 13, he mastered advanced trigonometry from the book written by S. L. Loney. Isn’t that Extraordinary! In 1903, when he was 16, Ramanujan obtained from a friend a library copy of A Synopsis of Elementary Results in Pure and Applied Mathematics, G. S. Carr’s collection of 5,000 theorems. Ramanujan reportedly studied the contents of the book in detail. This was the point where the hidden genius inside him awaken. He passed 10th standard from Town Higher Secondary School in 1904, where he was awarded with the K. Ranganatha Rao prize for mathematics by the school’s headmaster, Krishnaswami Iyer. Iyer commented, “Ramanujan is an extraordinary student who deserved scores higher than the maximum“. Ramanujan’s interest in mathematics was so great that he turned all his attention to Mathematics and leave rest of the subjects without paying any attention. As a result, he scored great in mathematics but failed in rest of the subjects. In this process, his scholarship had stopped. Now the situation at home was getting worse, and he was worried about money. So he started taking tuition of students for Mathematics and started gaining some money.
He reappeared for the the examination that he failed but he failed again. He never gave up, even though poverty and life events plagued him. He continued his research in mathematics. Initially, he did all of his research in isolation. On 14 July 1909, Ramanujan married Janaki (Janakiammal, a 10 years old girl). After marriage he had the responsibility of his new family too. Ramanujan searched for a job. He stayed at a friend’s house while he went from door to door around Madras looking for a clerical position.
Then in 1910 Ramanujan met deputy collector V. Ramaswamy Aiyer, who found the Indian Mathematical Society. Wishing for a job at the revenue department where Aiyer worked, Ramanujan showed him his mathematics notebooks. Here are some words of Mr. Aiyer about Ramanujan’s work –
” I was struck by the extraordinary mathematical results contained in the notebooks. I had no mind to smother his genius by an appointment in the lowest rungs of the revenue department.” Aiyer sent Ramanujan, with letters of introduction, to his mathematician friends in Madras. And there he got a job at at office with 30 rupees salary. He has a financial support from R. Ramachandra Rao. Doing this job he was getting enough time to continue his research. He continued his research in the office and published his first research paper in the Journal of the Indian Mathematical Society.
Now, Ramanujan had reached the position in his research where he couldn’t move further without any help from other mathematicians. On 16 January 1913 Ramanujan wrote to G. H. Hardy. Professor Hardy was amazed by the work of Ramanujan, even sum of Ramanujan work seemed to be unbelievable to him. Mathematician Littlewood was also amazed by Ramanujan’s genius. After discussion with Littlewood, Hardy decided to wrote a letter to Ramanujan. On 8 February 1913 Hardy wrote Ramanujan a letter expressing interest in his work. Also, he wanted to know the proofs of his work. But Ramanujan refused to leave his land to go to foreign country and write a letter to Mr. Hardy packed with theorems, writing, “I have found a friend in you who views my labour sympathetically.” Now this was the time when Ramanujan was getting 75 rupees for month as a salary for his research work.
Somehow G.H.Hardy convinced Ramanujan to come to England for research saying, “I know your work but people need their proof to know it.” Ramanujan’s mother allowed him to go to England and said that she had a dream of Namagiri Devi, where Devi commanded her not to stand between her son and the fulfilment of his life’s purpose. Ramanujan traveled to England by ship, leaving his wife Janaki to stay with his parents in India. Hardy had already received 120 theorems from Ramanujan in the first two letters, but there were many more results and theorems in the notebooks. After reaching England, without wasting time he started research in mathematics with Hardy and Littlewood. Hardy and Littlewood were amazed by the genius Ramanujan and started comparing him with Euler and Jacobi.
On 6 December 1917 Ramanujan was elected to the London Mathematical Society. On 2 May 1918 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. He became one of the youngest Fellows of the Royal Society and only the second Indian member, and the first Indian to be elected a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. Ramanujan and Hardy work together for five years.
But sadly Ramanujan was suffering from TB. At that time, there were no vaccines for the treatment of TB and doctor declared that Ramanujan had left few days to live. So in 1919, Ramanujan decided to return to India. He returned India. Even if he was not able to write, but still he wrote lots of new mathematical equations and formulas in the last phase of his life. On 26 April 1920 Ramanujan died at the age of 32. Ramanujan used to say that not all his work is his genius, instead this is all that Namagiri Devi communicates with him and tells him.
Decades after, many mathematicians have found that Ramanujan’s work is helping them to study the most complex phenomenon in physics like black hole. Many mathematicians are still using Ramanujan’s work as the base for their research
For Ramanujan, in universe, Math's is everything.
Proud to have such a great mathematician in India.
Thank you.
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