 Guwahati, Thursday, December 22, 2005 EDITORIAL Srinivasa Ramanujan a mathematical genius Dr Tazid Ali Srinivasa Ramanujan was born in his grandmothers house at Erode, a small village, bout 400 km southwest of Chennai on December 22, 1887. When Ramanujan was a year old his mother took him to the town of Kumbakonam, about 160 km from Chennai. His father worked in Kumbakonam as a clerk in a cloth merchants shop. At the Town High School, Ramanujan used to do well in all his school subjects and showed himself as an able all round scholar. His mathematical genius began to show at a very early age and even senior students used to visit his house for clarifying their doubts. He passed his Matriculation Examination under Madras University in 1903 with first class. Because of his position in the Matriculation Examination he secured the Subramaniam Scholarship and joined the F.A. (First Examination in Arts) class in the Government College, Kumbakonam. However being obsessed with mathematics, he had neglected all other subjects and so failed in the F.A. Examination and consequently lost his scholarship. But the depression due to failure in the FA Examination could not repress his urge for the pursuit of Mathematics. Poverty and penury could not obstruct it. His research marched on undeterred by any environmental factorphysical, personal, economic, or social. Magic squares, continued fractions, hyper-geometric series, properties of of numbers, partition of numbers, elliptic integrals, and several other such regions of mathematics engaged his thoughts. Ramanujans father, however, could never fathom the boys obsession for numbers. Intending to divert his sons involvement in Mathematics, the worried father got him married to a young girl Janaki who was eight year old. That was the year 1909 and Ramanujan was just 22 year old. This put Ramanujan in real dilemma. He needed money to support himself, his wife and to buy paper for writing. To save money he began reusing papers, once writing in blue and then overwriting in red. In desperation, Ramanujan approached Prof. V Ramaswamy Ayyar, the Deputy Collector in the Madras Civil Service asking for a clerks post in some office. Prof. Ramaswamy was the founder of the Indian Mathematical Society. Prof. Ramaswamy was impressed by the theorems and results got by Ramanujan. He wrote a letter of recommendation to Prof P V Seshu Ayyar of the Presidency College. Prof Seshu Ayyar then gave a note of introduction to Dewan Bahadur R Ramachandra Rao, Collector of Nellore District, and President of the Indian Mathematical Society. Ramachandra Rao then started to send money to Ramanujan every month. However, the humiliation to depend on others has gone deep into him and after some months he refused to take the money. Appreciating Ramanujans reluctance to live on a monthly donation from somebody Seshu Ayyar and Ramaswamy Ayyar persuaded S Narayana Ayyar, Manager of the Port Trust in Madras, an active worker in Mathematics, the treasurer of the Mathematical Society, to take Ramanujan into his staff. So Ramanujan joined as a clerk in the Madras Port Trust on March 1, 1912 with a salary of Rs. 25 per month. After about one year at the initiative of the Ayyars, a scholarship was awarded to Ramanujan for a period of two years by the Madras University. It is notable that at time Ramanujan did not possess any formal degree. He joined the University as a Research Scholar on May 1, 1913 on a monthly stipend of Rs 75. However, all those who were involved in the effort to secure the scholarship, felt that the academic environment in India at that time was not of the right standard to help Ramanujan to reach his fullness. They thought of sending Ramanujan to Cambridge. So at the suggestion of his well-wishers, in January 1913, Ramanujan wrote his first letter to G H Hardy, Lecturer in Mathematics in Cambridge. The letter was accompanied with a set of one hundred and twenty theorems and formulae worked out by Ramanujan himself. An interesting portion of the collection sent to Hardy was Ramanujans interpretation about the equations called modular. It was later proved that Ramanujans conjectures were indeed correct. The collection also included a formula in hypergeometric series, which later came to be named after him. Hardy recognized the genius in Ramanujan. He was amused to find that Ramanujan was an unsystematic mathematician, who played with mathematics much as a child played with toys. Hardy immediately decided that Ramanujan should be brought over to work with his peers in Cambridge. So Hardy wrote to the Secretary for Indian Students in India Office, London, suggesting that some means should be found to get him in Cambridge. The period of stay at Cambridge is termed as a super activity period of Ramanujans life. At Cambridge 32 papers were written by him. Out of these seven written in collboration with Hardy. On 1916 Ramanujan got honourary B.A. degree from Cambridge University. On February 18, 1918 Ramanujan was elected a fellow of the Cambridge Philosophical Society and then three days later, his name appeared on the list for election as a fellow of the Royal Society of London. His election as a fellow of the Royal Society was confirmed on May 2, 1918. He was the second Indian to be honoured with this fellowship. Then on October 10, 1918 he was elected a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. He was the first Indian to be eleted Fellow of the Trinity College, Cambridge. But the strenuous mental work, tensions and worries about his family in India had a telling effect on his health and by the year 1917 it showed signs of cracking up. In May that year, the University of Madras heard from Hardy that it was suspected that Ramanujan had contracted tuberculosis. As the climate of England was retarding his recovery he left England on February 27, 1919. However, his health didnt improve and in inspite of the best medical treatment available at that time in Madras, Ramanujan died on April 26, 1920 leaving behind his wife and parents. (Published on the occasion of Ramanujans birth anniversary). |
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