BJP TODAY

June 16--30, 2003 - Vol. 12, No. 12

Ramanujam: The Indian Formula Man Who Took Cambridge By Storm
Bhupendra M. Gandhi

It was a simple request, expressed in a letter to AV, by Ms. Jyoti Shah, whose curiosity was aroused after watching a documentary on Channel four. Although she only mentioned that it was about an Indian mathematician, who was a genius in his chosen field, the alert and knowledgable readers were soon on the right track and I was inundated with information, by phone, fax and email.

Srinivas Ramanujam Aiyangar was born on 22nd December 1887, in a poor Brahmin family, in a small village in the State of Tamil Nadu. He suffered from poor health all his life and died on 26th April 1920, at a very young age of 32.

He was a natural-born mathematician, at least 50 years ahead of his time, in his research and his working method. He was not always right or even on right track. In fact he made many mistakes but he dared to explore and write formulas which no one would dare to enter into. He crossed the frontier of science that others would only dream about.

Although Ramanujam was a genius in pure mathematics, he was, equally very poor in other subjects, perhaps he concentrated all his energies on mathematics. His scholarship to Government College in Kumbakonam was terminated after only one year, as he did so badly in all his subjects except pure mathematics.

His efforts to enter the University of Madras also failed, due to his poor record. However this setback encouraged Ramannujan to concentrate all his efforts on studying pure maths, reading every book written by the scholars of the time, especially G.S. Carr's Synopsis of Elementary Results in Pure Mathematics but so often studying numbers and theories which were entirely his own independent discoveries, creations.

In 1909, Ramannujam married a young girl, Janki Ammal which had a calming influence on his life. He got his first significant break when his brilliant research paper on Bernoulli's numbers was published in 1911, in the Indian Mathematical Society's Journal, which gave him the due recognition among the elite mathematicians of India and beyond.

In 1913, he wrote to an eminent professor at Cambridge University, forwarding his papers on Bernoulli numbers, as well as a long list of his unproven theories and formulas. In his letter, he also made it clear that he had no formal University education. He studied pure mathematics from books borrowed from the University libraries, working in his own time, in his own manner, creating divergent series with astonishing results.

In 1914, with the help of Professor Hardy and G.T. Walker, Ramanujam was granted scholarship by the University of Madras and he was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge. Being an orthodox Brahmin, Ramanujam was a strict vegetarian and in common with most professors, he was eccentric in the extreme, but he stuck to his task diligently, publishing several papers in England, forwarding his three monthly reports to Madras University and leaving behind a mountain of paperworks that is still not properly categorized.

He was the first Indian to be elected a fellow of the Royal Society of London, his name being proposed by the most prominent mathematicians of the time. He was also awarded a Bachlor of Science by Research degree, now called Ph. D.

Ramanujam fell seriously ill in 1917 and in spite of extensive treatment, spending several months in nursing homes, he was forced to return to India in 1919. But by this time, his scientific standing and reputation has preceded him and was considered the greatest Indian scientist ever. Yet he was a simple, modest man of limited means. His genius, his qualification, his writings or his research did not bring him any financial benefits but it was more than made up by the accolades he received from the international scientific community. He was a genius, a born mathematician, the like of which India has not produced since.

He died on 26th April 1920, probably from tuberculosis, leaving a widow but had no children. He was a prominent son of Bharat. It is a pity that we came to know this great man, not from any Indian publication but from a television programme produced by Western media.