National Mathematics Day 2022: Know Date, History, Significance Of Srinivasa Ramanujan Birth Anniversary

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National mathematics day which is observed on December 22 every year, celebrates the birth anniversary of Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan. The greatest mathematician of this era, Ramanujan has left behind a stunning legacy of 4000 theorems.

Born in 1887 in Tamil Nadu, to a Brahmin family, Ramanujan completed most of his research in the United Kingdom with the distinction of being the first fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge and the second Indian member of the Royal Society. He enriched with his theorems the fields of number theory, mathematical analysis, continued fractions and infinite series. He returned from the UK after a magnificent body of his work was published and left the world at the age of 32.

It was decided In 2011, during Ramanujan's 125th birth anniversary, that Manmohan Singh, the prime minister, finalised celebrating December 22, Ramanujan's birth date as the National Mathematics Day in his honour. Robert Kanigel's The Man Who Knew Infinity (1991), a path-breaking work was written by this mathematical genius It inspired a movie in 2016 of the same name, starring Dev Patel as Ramanujan.

National Mathematics Day: History

Ramanujan's life, was as stated by Sri Aurobindo, a "rags to mathematical riches" life story. His theorems are still an inspiration to current mathematics.

Srinivasa Ramanujan was born on 22nd December 1887 in the south Indian Tamil Nadu town of Erode. His father, Kuppuswamy Srinivasa Iyengar worked for a cloth merchant in a saree shop and his mother, Komalatamma was a homemaker. He evinced interest in maths when he was a mere child, and grew quickly into a child prodigy.

His schooling days were spent in Madras at a local school. He was a self-taught prodigy, who was promising as a student with a string of merit prizes at mathematical events at school. His obsession with maths earned him top ranking only in that subject whereas he ignored other subjects totally as a result of which he dropped out of college. Till he struck the final breakthrough that launched him to fame, he continued to work on theorems and concepts.

S. Ramanujam kept sending his stream of articles to international mathematicians as and when they occurred to him. When he was working as a clerk at Madras Post Trust Office, the manager helped him to reach out to G.H. Hardy, a famous mathematician at Cambridge University. He mailed his famous letter to Hardy enclosing 120 theorems. Hardy analysed them with along with his colleague and found that S Ramanujan was a genius of the highest order. Thus, Ramanujan began his journey as a recognized mathematician.

As his health started showing signs of decline In 1919, he decided to return to his homeland. His health worsened after his return and he succumbed finally to it at the age of 32 years.

National Mathematics Day 2023: Significance

It was a child's play for S Ramanujan to solve algebra and trigonometric problem which his friends had no idea or clue about. His contributions are huge towards mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite series and continued fractions. In the year 1913, Srinivasa Ramanujan was introduced to European mathematicians for a higher pursuit of knowledge. He was an elected member to societies dedicated to debate on Mathematics. After exchanging a couple of letters to Hardy of Cambridge he moved to England in 1914 to settle there. Here he issued a number of mathematical papers.

Along with the illustrious lineup of ancient Indian mathematicians, like Brahmagupta, Aryabhata, Srinivasa Ramanujan was included to play a guiding role in mathematics to the current math experts and his role is colossal in developing different formulas, theorems and theories on mathematics. It is with us, to continue his lineage and do justice to him as a most prominent mathematician and celebrate National Mathematics Day in his memory and honour.