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Srinivasa Ramanujan: The Man Who Knew Infinity

The objective of this essay is not to introduce the complex nuances of Ramanujan’s mathematical theories, but to tell his thrilling story of becoming the first Indian Fellow of the Royal Society and the first Indian elected Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, rising from extreme destitution. He made these achievements within a tragically short lifespan of just thirty-two years.

The Lost Notebook and the Slate Calculations

Ramanujan’s major contributions spanned mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite series, and continued fractions.

He recorded his brilliant insights across four simple notebooks, made of loose sheets. His fourth notebook, used during his painful final year of life, went missing for decades. When it was finally rediscovered in 1976, it sent waves of excitement through the global mathematical community. The brief notes and comments he attached to his theories opened entirely new channels of thought, inspiring generations of mathematicians well into the present day. Ramanujan’s notebooks contained mathematical breakthroughs that were decades ahead of his time.

In total, Ramanujan discovered more than 3,900 theorems and equations. Astonishingly, he did all of this without any advanced mathematical training. For some theorems, only the final result was written in the notebook, without details.

Do you know why?

Because of his extreme poverty, Ramanujan could rarely afford enough paper to write down his full step-by-step solutions. Instead, he worked out his complex calculations using chalk on a slate, wiping it clean once he had reached the end. He recorded only the final results on precious paper. Sadly, this lack of details initially led rigid Western professors to doubt his integrity and question the genuineness of his theories.

A Prodigy Born in Poverty

Srinivasa Ramanujan Aiyangar was born into a traditional Tamil Brahmin family in Erode on December 22, 1887. His father was a humble clerk in a local saree shop, and the family faced early tragedy when Ramanujan’s three siblings died before their first birthdays.

Living a typical Brahmin life, Ramanujan passed his primary school examinations at age 10 with the highest scores in the entire district. His intense obsession with mathematics began in higher secondary school. He mastered advanced textbooks completely on his own and began researching and developing new theorems and equations.

However, his singular focus became a hurdle. After receiving a scholarship to join the Government Arts College in Kumbhakonam, he became so consumed by mathematics that he neglected and failed his other subjects, losing his scholarship. He ran away from home, out of desperation. Somehow, later, he joined Pachiappa’s college, Madras. In the new college, once again, he focused only on mathematics and failed to qualify for his degree. However, he pursued his independent research in mathematics, living in extreme poverty and often on the brink of starvation.

He got married to Janakiammal in 1909, and after the marriage, he went door to door around Madras searching for a job. During this time, he fell dangerously ill; with no money for medical treatment, a kind doctor treated him for free. He kept his research alive using the meager income he earned from tutoring school children. In 1910, Ramanujan was fortunate to meet the founder of the Indian Mathematical Society, Shri V Ramaswamy Aiyar. Impressed by his talent, Aiyar introduced Ramanujan to prominent mathematicians. But because of his unconventional style and lack of formal credentials, acceptance into their community was not forthcoming.

The Call of Cambridge

In 1913, Ramanujan began a correspondence by mail with the renowned English mathematician G H Hardy at Cambridge. Fortunately for Ramanujan, Hardy recognized his work as extraordinary. He found that Ramanujan’s discoveries, including the Ramanujan prime, the Ramanujan theta function, partition formulae, and mock theta functions, were completely groundbreaking. But some other prominent scholars of London pointed out that Ramanujan lacked the necessary educational credentials for his theorems to be accepted by them. They found some of his works lacking substantiation in the absence of detailed working proofs. In fact, his highly intellectual works were too sophisticated to digest easily, and they wanted to see the proof in person.

Amazed by the genius of Ramanujan, Hardy arranged Ramanujan’s trip to Cambridge. But, bound by his strict Brahmin upbringing and his parents’ wishes, Ramanujan refused to leave his country and go to a foreign land, crossing the ocean, as it was forbidden for Brahmins. Instead, he sent the manuscripts to Hardy by post. His works soon spread among many mathematicians and began gaining acceptance.

This news enabled Ramanujam to secure a scholarship of seventy-five rupees per month for his research work in India.

The final breakthrough came in a dream. Ramanujan’s mother had a vivid vision where she saw her son surrounded by Europeans, and the family deity—the Goddess Namagiri of Namakkal—commanded her to stop standing between her son and his life’s true purpose.

On March 17, 1914, Ramanujan boarded a ship bound for England.

A Clash of Worlds and the Magic of 1729

Ramanujan spent five incredibly productive years at Cambridge collaborating with Hardy and other professors. Their partnership was a fascinating cultural clash: Hardy was a staunch atheist and an apostle of strict mathematical proof and rigour, while Ramanujan was deeply religious, relying entirely on his intuition, insights, and spiritual visions.

Throughout his life, Ramanujan suffered from severe health issues, which rapidly worsened under the cold weather and dietary restrictions of wartime England. During one of his frequent hospitalizations, Hardy rode in a taxi to visit him. Looking for conversation, Hardy mentioned that his taxi number had been 1729, remarking that it seemed rather dull and hoping it wasn’t a bad omen.

Ramanujan instantly replied:

“No, it is a very interesting number; it is the smallest number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways.”

1729=1³ +12³ = 9³ +10³

Ever since that day, 1729 has been famously known as the Hardy-Ramanujan Number.

The Ultimate Recognition

The academic world could not ignore his genius for long.

• March 1916: Ramanujan was awarded a Bachelor of Arts (later converted to a PhD) for his monumental work on highly composite numbers.
• December 1917: He was elected to the London Mathematical Society.
• May 1918: He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) for his studies in elliptic functions and the theory of numbers. At just 30 years old, he was one of the youngest fellows in its prestigious history.

Because of his worsening health condition, Ramanujam returned to Kumbakonam in 1919, where he died in 1920 at the age of 32.

An Enduring Scientific Legacy

To put Ramanujan’s natural talent into perspective, Hardy used an informal rating scale from 0 to 100. He graded himself a 25, his brilliant collaborator J.E. Littlewood a 30, the legendary German mathematician David Hilbert an 80, and assigned Ramanujan a perfect 100.

Even though Ramanujam and Einstein lived contemporarily, they never met in their lifetime. But like poetic justice, modern Physics has beautifully linked the works of these two giants in their respective fields. Decades after Ramanujan’s death, physicists discovered that his ‘Mock Theta Functions’ are vital components in string theory. Today, the same theory is used to calculate the cosmic entropy of black holes, a natural phenomenon born directly from Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity.

06.06.2026