12 Bizarre And Unique Facts About Srinivasa Ramanujan

Waiting for the release of the forthcoming American venture, The Man Who Knew Infinity, with bated breath, aren’t you? Directed by Matthew Brown, the film stars Dev Patel, Jeremy Irons and Devika Bhise in key roles. But do you know the man the project is based on? Srinivasa Ramanujan – the Mozart of mathematics! In his short span of life (he died at the age of 33 on 20th April 1920), he did so much to inspire a whole lot of generation! Even a movie has been made on him! On that note, here are 12 interesting facts about the genius of numbers and theorems!

1. Ramanujan was born on 22nd December 1887 to K. Srinivasa Iyengar, a clerk in a saree shop, and Komalatammal, in Kumbakonam. Their house has been made into a museum now.

2. Sadly, all his siblings breathed their last in infancy. In fact, when Ramanujan was two years old, in 1889, he contracted smallpox, and while many died from the disease in the Thanjavur district that year, Ramanujan managed to beat it and come out of it.

3. After the demise of his paternal grandfather, Ramanujan lived with his maternal grandparents. He was enrolled in a school there, but since he didn’t like his school, he always tried to avoid going to it. So much so that his family had to appoint a local constable to keep a check on him and ensure that he didn’t miss his school.

4. He began showing signs of a mathematical genius quite early in his life. By the time he was 13, Ramanujan had completely mastered a book on advanced trigonometry, written by S. L. Loney.

5. He hardly had any friends at school, as his peers, always in awe of his exceptional mathematical expertise, would fall short of understanding him and gelling well with him.

6. Ramanujan always used to shock and stun his classmates and teachers by completing his mathematics exam in just half of the allotted time.

7. Since paper was expensive then, Ramanujan used to practice on a slate.

8. Want to know what played the key role in making Ramanujan a master of numbers and theorems? Well, it was a copy of A Synopsis of Elementary Results in Pure and Applied Mathematics by G. S. Carr that played that instrumental part in the intellectual’s life. He had borrowed the book from a friend, who had issued it from a library. The book was a compilation of 5000 theorems. Ramanujan read the book thoroughly in order to understand it in depth. And guess what, he was just 16 then.

9. His mathematical aptitude won him a scholarship to study at Government Arts College in Kumbakonam. However, owing to his lack of interest in other subjects, he flunked in most of them, and lost his scholarship eventually.

10. A big fan of the celebrated mathematician from the Cambridge University, G. H. Hardy, Ramanujan sent some of his theorems and formulae to him, in January 1913. His work impressed Hardy immensely, and he invited him to Cambridge. However, owing to his parents’ opposition and his Brahmin upbringing, Ramanujan refused the offer. But interestingly, his mother apparently saw a dream, in which, their family goddess, Namagiri, had commanded her to let her son fulfill the purpose of his life.

11. When he was 22, he got married to a 10 years old child bride, Janaki, on 14th July 1909.

12. Did you know that 22nd December, Ramanujan’s birth anniversary, has been termed as the National Mathematics Day in India?