Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887-1920): The Mathematical genius of Erode, who got PhD from Cambridge, but, ignored by Tamilnadu!

Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887-1920): The Mathematical genius of Erode, who got PhD from Cambridge, but, ignored by Tamilnadu!

100^th Death Anniversary of Ramanujan: Today is Srivasa Ramanujam’s 100^th death anniversary day. He was born on December 22, 1887 in Erode, and his parents are -father K. Srinivasa Iyengar, an accounting clerk for a clothing merchant and mother Komalatammal, earning a small amount of money each month as a singer at the local temple. As they were poor, Ramanujan’s parents moved around a lot, and he attended a variety of different elementary schools. Yet, at age 10, Ramanujan became the top student in his district and he started high school at the Kumbakonam Town High School. He always used to search for mathematical books. By age 12, he had begun serious self-study of mathematics, working through cubic equations and arithmetic and geometric series inventing his own method of solving quadratic equations.

Ramanujam developed mathematical knowledge himself: Ramanujam developed his mathematical knowledge by himself. He used to think about mathematics, equations and started writing on the pieces of paper. As students used to write on the slates with chalk [called as Balappam], he could transfer only some of his discovered equations from the slate to piece of papers. His memory for mathematical formulas and constants seems to have been boundless and amazing: he stunned his classmates with his ability to recite the values of irrational numbers like π, e, and √2 to as many decimal places as they asked for. His friends always used to be with him testing his capabilities.

He failed in non-mathematical subjects, but, did not forget mathematics: In 1904 he left High school and in 1905 joined Pachaiyappa’s College, Madras. Ironically, he could not pass non-mathematical subjects many times. By the time Ramanujan got to college, all he wanted to do was mathematics—and he failed his other classes, and at one point ran away, causing his mother to send a missing-person letter to the newspaper in 1905. Thus, one J. Seenivasa Ayangar, from Kumbakonam wrote to “the Hindu,” about his [18 years boy] missing. Ramanujan moved to Madras, tried different colleges, had medical problems, and continued his independent math research.  In 1909, when he was 21, his mother arranged (in keeping with customs of the time) for him to marry a then-10-year-old girl named Janaki, who started living with him a couple of years later.

Scientist and mathematician: Though he was a scientist ad mathematics, hardly he was recognized by others. At a young age, he was struggling with ill-health and finance. At last in 1912, he got the posting of “accounting clerk,” at the Madras Port Trust. He worked, when, Sir Francis Spring was the chairman of the Trust. In the Port Trust also, he used to scribble in piece of papers, only mathematical theorems, series and so on. It was one Ramaswamy Aiyer, who recommended to the Accountant General Office as a clerk. Then, he joined the Port Trust. And when he found the interest of Ramanujan, he contacted the secretary of the Indian Mathematical Society, R. Ramachandra Rao, suggesting he provide financial support for Ramanujan. Then, he started contributing papers to the Indian Mathematical Association. Realizing his mathematical wisdom, they suggested him to write to Cambridge and other Universities. In 1912–1913, he sent samples of his theorems to three academics at the University of Cambridge. G. H. Hardy, recognizing the brilliance of his work, invited Ramanujan to visit and work with him at Cambridge. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society and a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.

Ramanujan in Cambridge University: Ramanujan arrived in Cambridge in April 1914, On July 28^th 1914, World War – I started. In this way, the astonishing mathematical genius, virtually self-taught, who came to the attention of the British mathematician G.H. Hardy, who arranged a scholarship for him to Trinity College in 1914. He also presented a paper to the Royal Mathematical Society and published. In 1916 he was awarded a PhD and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. This was mainly for his work on number theory, including work on Bernoulli numbers and the Reimann series.

In 1915, Ramanujan published his paper “Higher composite numbers”.

In 1916, PhD was awarded, just for formality, as knowledge was stupendous.

In 1917, he was diagnosed with Tuberculosis.

On 6 December 1917, he was elected to the London Mathematical Society.

He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1918, becoming the second Indian to do so and he was one of the youngest Fellows in the history of the Royal Society. He was elected “for his investigation in Elliptic functions and the Theory of Numbers.”

On 13 October 1918, he became the first Indian to be elected a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.

He returned to Madras on March 13^th 1919.

But, he died on April 24^th 1920, as confirmed by the Senate of Madras University.

His body was cremated. Sadly, some of Ramanujan’s Brahmin relatives refused to attend his funeral because he had travelled overseas.

When he was in Madras none bothered about him.

A box of manuscripts and three notebooks: In 1987, at the occasion of Centenary celebration od Ramanujan, Hardy head about “unpublished notebooks” of Ramanujan. It was said that Smt Janaki Ammal was keeping them as memory in her trunk box. That’s all that’s left of the work of Srinivasa Ramanujan, an Indian mathematician who lived his remarkable but short life around the beginning of the twentieth century. Yet, that small stash of mathematical legacy still yields surprises. Two mathematicians of Emory University, Ken Ono and Sarah Trebat-Leder, have recently made a fascinating discovery within its yellowed pages. It shows that Ramanujan was further ahead of his time than anyone had expected, and provides a beautiful link between several milestones in the history of mathematics. And it all goes back to the innocuous-looking number 1729. Yet, Indians, particularly, the people of Tamilnadu, rarely whisper about him. No textbook also gives importance to him and his mathematical wisdom.

Why Ramanujan is ignored and neglected in spite of his mathematics wisdom: Definitely, the bias of the Tamilnadu people, rulers and others could be noted easily in the case of non-recognition of the mathematical genius Ramanujan. The Government of Tamilnadu spends crores and lakhs in building the so-called “Mani mandapams,” issuing advertisements in the leading English and vernacular dailies and also celebrations. But, when coming to Ramanujan nothing!  He suffered all through life, because, his was from the poor family. It is evident that the “Dravidian” ideologists and rulers do not want to recognize him. Because, he is a Brahmin or Aryan! Many PhDs have been/are being done on the actors, actresses, films, film songs, and so on. But, when personalities like Ramanujan comes, no takers. Historians, history researchers and others should give importance to the history of science and technology also, as without understanding the history, development and impact on the historical subjects, many basics cannot be understood..

© K. V. Ramakrishna Rao.

26-04-2020

Bibliography

1927. H. Hardy, P.V.Seshu Iyer and B.M.Wilson (Eds.), Collected Papers of Srinivasa Ramanujan, Cambridge, at the University Press, 1927.

Bruce C. Berndt and Robert A. Ramkin, Ramanujan – Letters and Commentary, The American Mathmatical Society, USE, 1997.

Robert Kanigel, The Man who knew Infinity – A  Life of the Genius Ramanujan,, Washington Square Press, USA, 1991.

George E. Andrews and Bruce C. Berndt, Ramanujan’s Lost Notebook, Part-I, Springer, USA, 2005