National Mathematics Day and Srinivasa Ramanujan

Sanjenbam Jugeshwor Singh *

Ramanujan's home at Sarangapani Street, Kumbakonam :: Pix Courtesy - wikipedia/Adiswini

The great SRINIVASA RAMANUJAN took birth on 22nd December 1887 in ERODE town in Tamil Nadu. He read Mathematics voraciously and started developing his own research in isolation in the beginning. Srinivasan was an autodidact, he was a self-taught person and never had any formal training in mathematics. He first solved the formal and regular mathematics when he was 10 years old. When he was at the school, he received several merit certificates and academic awards.

Ramanujan has greatly contributed towards Mathematical analysis, Number Theory, infinite series and continued fractions. His aids and contribution gave an entirely new meaning to Mathematics.

In the year 1913 he came in contact with European mathematician for further developing his knowledge and interest towards mathematics. He was also elected to various Societies organized for debate and discussion on Mathematics.

He started exchanging letters with World famous mathematician G.H Hardy and ultimately moved to England in the year 1914.He spent around 5 years at Cambridge and issued a number of papers during his stay there. When he was only 15 years old, he found a copy of Synopsis of Elementary result in pure and applied mathematics written by George Shoobridge Carr in 1886. This book was significant as it was the main source of information for the self-taught and legendary mathematician SRINIVASA RAMANUJAN.

Itis also said that the book played a huge role and a key factor in arousing the brilliance and intelligence of Ramanujan. He reportedly studied and followed in detail each and every content of the book.

After verifying the result and description in CARR's book, he went beyond and developed his own ideas and theorems. In 1903, he won a scholarship to the University of Madras but lost it in the following year as he ignored all other studies related to Mathematics. This did not discourage him and he continued his research work without any employment. He lived in the poorest conditions and was determined towards his research work. He got married in1909 and started searching for everlasting employment, this led him to meet one of the Government officials MrRamachanra Rao.

Mr Rao was highly impressed by the Mathematical knowledge and prowess of Ramanujan . Mr Rao even agreed to support his research for a certain time. But Ramanujan was not willing to continue with any work on charity and ultimately he obtained a clerical position with Port Trust of Madras.

In the year 1911, Ramanujan got his first paper issued in the Journal confined to the Society of Indian Mathematics. His outstanding ability and intelligence gradually started gaining popularity and in the year 1913, he started communicating with Godfray H. Hardy,the famous British mathematician.

This interaction helped him in gaining a special scholarship from Madras University and a funding from Trinity College in Cambridge. Ramanujan overcame his religious protest and travelled to England in 1914 to meet Hardy.

He enhanced his knowledge further and Hardy taught him several formulas, theoremsetc related to Mathematics. Hardy even did some research in association with Ramanujan during his stay in England. Ramanujan worked out majority of the Mathematics formulas himself and his knowledge was amazing. Even though, he was nearly unacquainted of the modern development which were taking place in Mathematics, his expertise over continuedfractions was incomparable with any Mathematician that lived during that time.

He worked upon the Elliptic Integrals, the functional and practical equations of Zeta functions, the Riemann series, the hyper geometric series and his own theory of various series. Ramanujann made complimentary advances during his stay in England. He especially improved his knowledge and wrote several papers describing a partitions ofnumbers.

His papers got issued in English and other European journals, He even got elected to the Royal Society of London in 1918, unfortunately in 1917 he got contracted with tuberculosis .He returned to India in1919 after significant improvement of his health but he passed away on 26th April 1920.

The bundle contained unpublished results of Mathematics that were continued to be studied and verified by different mathematicians for a long time even after his death.

India has produced various scholars in different field. One of such legendries is SRINIVASA RAMANUJAN who made an astonishing contribution to the mathematical analysis, infinite series and number theory. He also introduced several equations and formulas.

Ramanujan's theta and Ramanujan;s prime discovered by him has been inspiring various researchers for further research and development of the subject.

In respect to this great legendary mathematician, the 22nd December, the birth day of this great man was declared as NATIONAL MATHEMATICS DAY by Dr Man MohanSingh, former Prime Minister of India during the Inaugural ceremony of the celebration to mark the 125th birth anniversary of this great man at Madras University on 26 the February 2012 and 2012 was also celebrated as the National Mathematics year.

Thus by celebrating NATIONAL MATHEMATICS DAY on the birth anniversary of this great man ,we would pay tribute to this legend and would also be sustain in the mathematical culture of India.