Remembering S Ramanujan On his birth anniversary, remembering his love of mathematics and his rich legacy

Remembering S Ramanujan

On his birth anniversary, remembering his love of mathematics and his rich legacy

One of India’s greatest mathematicians, Srinivasa Ramanujan was born on 22 December 1887, one hundred and twenty five years ago in Erode, Tamil Nadu. He died at the very young age of 32 on April 26, 1920 in Kumbakonam. Prior to his last few months in India, he lived for five years in Cambridge, England, and produced some of the most breathtaking mathematical results in collaboration with one of England’s then most eminent mathematicians, Professor G. H. Hardy.
    Ramanujan’s work of these five years has led to extraordinary work in the number theory and pure mathematics over this entire century. Even after he came back to India, due to ill health, he wrotealettertoHardyliterallyfromhisdeathbed in 1920.
    That letter itself has led to a whole new field in mathematics called “mock theta functions”. This relatively new field is seeing vigorous activity and research now, almost hundred years after the death of Ramanujan.
    Princeton physicist Freeman Dyson has predicted that the theory of mock theta functions will spawn several fields of research in the twenty first century across the disciplines of physics, mathematics and beyond. In 1976 a "lost notebook" of Ramanujan was discovered among old papers of a Professor in England.
    The many scribbled theorems, mostly unproved but undoubtedly true, have also led to new and exciting research. One writer compared this discovery to suddenly finding Beethoven's tenth symphony. Imagine the excitement. The discovery of Ramanujan by Hardy itself is an amazing story.
    In January 1913 (the year when RabindranathTagoregothisNobelPrizeforliterature),RamanujanwroteanunsolicitedlettertoHardy.He had written such letters to many other English professors. But had got no response. The letter was a collection of some of his mathematical results. These nine handwritten pages arrived in Cambridge probably in semi tattered form on Hardy’s desk.
    Hardy suspected this work to be fraud, for many people used to write to him claiming to have solved profound mathematical problems. Butthetheoremsintriguedhim.Therewereafew mistakes, mostly minor. But the results were astoundingly profound. He immediately got in touch with British authorities and arranged for Ramanujan’s transport to England. Thus began one of the greatest mathematical voyages of moderntimes.Inthenextseveralyears,professor Hardy alongwith professor Littlewood collaborated on a rich body of work in Cambridge.
    Later Hardy described this collaboration as “one of the truly romantic incidents of my life”. He also said that if he had done anything worthwhile in his life, it was to have met a person like Ramanujan. For an austere Englishman to have madesuchsentimentalstatementsitselfisatestimony to the genius of Ramanujan.
    They made a most unlikely pair, a highly sophisticated Englishman who was a Cambridge don, very proper and methodical; and an orthodox religious, strict vegetarian, unsystematic and given to bouts of inspired genius. This ‘romantic’ collaboration inspired English playwright Simon McBurney in 2007 to conceptualize and direct an award winning play called "A Disappearing Number". This play was performed in India in 2010 when India hosted the "Olympics" of mathematics, i.e. the International Congress for the very first time. Ramanujan’s work finds application in a variety of fields like cryptography, data compression, networks, algorithms, space research and weather forecasting.
    Ramanujan's true legacy is the demonstrationofhowahumbleuntutoredvillageboy,with sheerpassionandinspirationrosetobecomeone of the world's greatest mathematicians. Robert Kanigel, his well known biographer called Ramanujanas"Themanwhoknewinfinity".Thebeauty of Ramanujan’s work in mathematics is on par withthebestworksinpoetry,musicandphilosophy.
    May Ramanujan’s memory inspire us to pursue our passion, especially in a field like mathematics, which is a key source of competitive edge in the modern world.

Ramanujan's true legacy is the demonstration of how a humble untutored village boy, with sheer passion and inspiration rose to become one of the world's greatest mathematicians