Article : Ramanujan: The Man Who Knew Infinity
Ramanujan: The Man Who Knew Infinity
Srinivasa Ramanujan was not just a mathematician; he was a phenomenon. Born in a modest household in colonial India, with little formal training and almost no access to advanced mathematical literature, Ramanujan produced ideas so original and profound that they continue to influence mathematics more than a century later. His life story—of genius, struggle, and unfulfilled promise—has earned him the enduring title “The Man Who Knew Infinity.” Early Life: Genius Amid Hardship Srinivasa Ramanujan was born on December 22, 1887, in Erode, Tamil Nadu, and grew up in Kumbakonam.
From an early age, he showed an extraordinary aptitude for numbers. While other children memorised tables, Ramanujan explored infinite series, fractions, and numerical patterns intuitively. His brilliance, however, came with hardship. Ramanujan struggled in conventional education because he focused almost exclusively on mathematics, neglecting other subjects. As a result, he failed college exams and lost scholarships. Poverty shadowed his youth, forcing him to rely on friends and well-wishers for survival while he filled notebooks with thousands of original mathematical results. Self-Taught and Self-Driven Ramanujan’s mathematical world was largely self-constructed. One of the few books he studied was G.S. Carr’s “A Synopsis of Elementary Results in Pure and Applied Mathematics.” From this skeletal compilation of formulas, Ramanujan built deep insights—often without proofs—arriving at results that took trained mathematicians years to verify.
He believed that many of his ideas came to him intuitively, sometimes attributing them to divine inspiration from Goddess Namagiri, whom he worshipped. Whether mystical or mental, his intuition proved astonishingly accurate. The Letter That Changed Everything In 1913, Ramanujan wrote a now-legendary letter to G.H. Hardy, a leading mathematician at Cambridge University. The letter contained over a hundred theorems—many entirely new. Hardy immediately recognised Ramanujan’s genius, famously saying that comparing him to ordinary mathematicians was like comparing a star to a candle. With Hardy’s support, Ramanujan travelled to England in 1914, a turning point in his life. Cambridge Years: Recognition and Struggle At Cambridge, Ramanujan collaborated with Hardy and produced groundbreaking work in: Number theory Infinite series Continued fractions Modular forms Partitions of numbers Despite academic success, life in England was difficult. Ramanujan struggled with the cold climate, unfamiliar food, racism, and isolation. His health deteriorated during World War I, and he suffered from severe illness, likely worsened by malnutrition and stress.
Yet even during illness, his creativity did not fade. One famous episode involves the number 1729, which Ramanujan identified as the smallest number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways—now known as the Hardy–Ramanujan number. Return to India and Early Death Ramanujan returned to India in 1919, seriously ill. Just a year later, on April 26, 1920, he passed away at the age of 32. In his short life, he produced nearly 4,000 mathematical results, many of which were decades ahead of their time. Even today, mathematicians continue to uncover the depth of his work, particularly from his unpublished notebooks. Enduring Legacy Ramanujan’s ideas are now central to modern mathematics and physics. His work has applications in: Cryptography Computer science Black hole physics String theory In India, December 22 is celebrated as National Mathematics Day in his honour. His life inspired the acclaimed book “The Man Who Knew Infinity” by Robert Kanigel and a later film adaptation, bringing his remarkable story to a global audience. Conclusion Srinivasa Ramanujan’s life reminds us that genius can emerge anywhere—unshaped by privilege, driven by curiosity, and powered by passion.
Though his life was brief, his contributions are infinite in impact. He remains a symbol of human potential, proving that the language of mathematics transcends culture, geography, and circumstance. Ramanujan did not just study infinity—he lived it. Dr Vijay Garg Retired Principal Educational columnist Eminent mathematician street kour Chand MHR Malout Punjab -152107
