Srinivasa Ramanujan

Ramanujan redirects here.

For other uses, see
Ramanujan (disambiguation).
In this Indian name, the name Srinivasa is a patronymic,
not a family name, and the person should be referred to
by the given name, Ramanujan.
Srinivasa
Ramanujan
FRS
(pronunciation:
i
/sri.ni.va.sra.ma.n.dn/) (22 December 1887
26 April 1920) was an Indian mathematician and
autodidact who, with almost no formal training in
pure mathematics, made extraordinary contributions to
mathematical analysis, number theory, innite series,
and continued fractions. Ramanujan initially developed
his own mathematical research in isolation; it was
quickly recognized by Indian mathematicians. When
his skills became apparent to the wider mathematical
community, centred in Europe at the time, he began a
famous partnership with the English mathematician G.
H. Hardy. He rediscovered previously known theorems
in addition to producing new work.
During his short life, Ramanujan independently compiled
nearly 3900 results (mostly identities and equations).[1]
Nearly all his claims have now been proven correct, although a small number of these results were actually false
and some were already known.[2] He stated results that
were both original and highly unconventional, such as the
Ramanujan prime and the Ramanujan theta function, and
these have inspired a vast amount of further research.[3]
The Ramanujan Journal, an international publication,
was launched to publish work in all areas of mathematics
inuenced by his work.[4]

Ramanujans home on Sarangapani Street, Kumbakonam

her parents house in Kanchipuram, near Madras (now

Chennai). In November 1891, and again in 1894, his
mother gave birth to two children, but both children died
in infancy.
On 1 October 1892, Ramanujan was enrolled at the local school.[9] In March 1894, he was moved to a Tamil
medium school. After his maternal grandfather lost his
job as a court ocial in Kanchipuram,[10] Ramanujan
and his mother moved back to Kumbakonam and he was
enrolled in the Kangayan Primary School.[11] When his
paternal grandfather died, he was sent back to his maternal grandparents, who were now living in Madras. He did
not like school in Madras, and he tried to avoid attending.
His family enlisted a local constable to make sure he attended school. Within six months, Ramanujan was back
in Kumbakonam.[11]

Early life

Ramanujan was born on 22 December 1887 in Erode,

Madras Presidency (now Pallipalayam, Erode, Tamil
Nadu), at the residence of his maternal grandparents.[5]
His father, K. Srinivasa Iyengar, worked as a clerk in a
sari shop and hailed from the district of Thanjavur.[6] His
mother, Komalatammal, was a housewife and also sang
at a local temple.[7] They lived in Sarangapani Street in
a traditional home in the town of Kumbakonam. The
family home is now a museum. When Ramanujan was a
year and a half old, his mother gave birth to a son named
Sadagopan, who died less than three months later. In December 1889, Ramanujan had smallpox and recovered,
unlike thousands in the Thanjavur District who died from
the disease that year.[8] He moved with his mother to

Since Ramanujans father was at work most of the day,

his mother took care of him as a child. He had a close
relationship with her. From her, he learned about tradition and puranas. He learned to sing religious songs,
to attend pujas at the temple and particular eating habits
all of which are part of Brahmin culture.[12] At the
1

ADULTHOOD IN INDIA

Kangayan Primary School, Ramanujan performed well. the brink of starvation.[26]

Just before the age of 10, in November 1897, he passed
his primary examinations in English, Tamil, geography
and arithmetic. With his scores, he stood rst in the 2 Adulthood in India
district.[13] That year, Ramanujan entered Town Higher
Secondary School where he encountered formal matheOn 14 July 1909, Ramanujan was married to a tenmatics for the rst time.[13]
year-old bride, Janakiammal (21 March 1899 13 April
By age 11, he had exhausted the mathematical knowledge 1994).[27] She came from Rajendram, a village close to
of two college students who were lodgers at his home. He Marudur (Karur district) Railway Station. Ramanujans
was later lent a book on advanced trigonometry written by father did not participate in the marriage ceremony.[28]
S. L. Loney.[14][15] He completely mastered this book by
the age of 13 and discovered sophisticated theorems on After the marriage, Ramanujan developed a hydrocele
tunica vaginalis, an inhis own. By 14, he was receiving merit certicates and testis, an abnormal swelling of the
[29]
The condition could
ternal
membrane
in
the
testicle.
academic awards which continued throughout his school
be
treated
with
a
routine
surgical
operation
that would
career and also assisted the school in the logistics of asrelease
the
blocked
uid
in
the
scrotal
sac.
His family
signing its 1200 students (each with their own needs) to
did
not
have
the
money
for
the
operation,
but
in January
[16]
its 35-odd teachers.
He completed mathematical ex1910,
a
doctor
volunteered
to
do
the
surgery
for
free.[30]
ams in half the allotted time, and showed a familiarity
with geometry and innite series. Ramanujan was shown After his successful surgery, Ramanujan searched for a
how to solve cubic equations in 1902 and he went on to job. He stayed at friends houses while he went door to
nd his own method to solve the quartic. The following door around the city of Madras (now Chennai) looking
year, not knowing that the quintic could not be solved by for a clerical position. To make some money, he tutored
radicals, he tried (and of course failed) to solve the quin- some students at Presidency College who were preparing
tic.
for their F.A. exam.[31]
In 1903 when he was 16, Ramanujan obtained from
a friend a library-loaned copy of a book by G. S.
Carr.[17][18] The book was titled A Synopsis of Elementary
Results in Pure and Applied Mathematics and was a collection of 5000 theorems. Ramanujan reportedly studied
the contents of the book in detail.[19] The book is generally acknowledged as a key element in awakening the
genius of Ramanujan.[19] The next year, he had independently developed and investigated the Bernoulli numbers
and had calculated the EulerMascheroni constant up to
15 decimal places.[20] His peers at the time commented
that they rarely understood him and stood in respectful
awe of him.[16]
When he graduated from Town Higher Secondary School
in 1904, Ramanujan was awarded the K. Ranganatha
Rao prize for mathematics by the schools headmaster, Krishnaswami Iyer. Iyer introduced Ramanujan
as an outstanding student who deserved scores higher
than the maximum possible marks.[16] He received a
scholarship to study at Government Arts College, Kumbakonam,[21][22] However, Ramanujan was so intent on
studying mathematics that he could not focus on any
other subjects and failed most of them, losing his scholarship in the process.[23] In August 1905, he ran away
from home, heading towards Visakhapatnam and stayed
in Rajahmundry[24] for about a month.[25] He later enrolled at Pachaiyappas College in Madras. He again excelled in mathematics but performed poorly in other subjects such as physiology. Ramanujan failed his Fellow
of Arts exam in December 1906 and again a year later.
Without a degree, he left college and continued to pursue independent research in mathematics. At this point
in his life, he lived in extreme poverty and was often on

In late 1910, Ramanujan was sick again, possibly as a result of the surgery earlier in the year. He feared for his
health, and even told his friend, R. Radakrishna Iyer, to
hand these [Ramanujans mathematical notebooks] over
to Professor Singaravelu Mudaliar [the mathematics professor at Pachaiyappas College] or to the British professor Edward B. Ross, of the Madras Christian College.[32]
After Ramanujan recovered and got back his notebooks
from Iyer, he took a northbound train from Kumbakonam
to Villupuram, a coastal city under French control.[33][34]

2.1 Attention towards mathematics

Ramanujan met deputy collector V. Ramaswamy Aiyer,
who had recently founded the Indian Mathematical
Society.[35] Ramanujan, wishing for a job at the revenue
department where Ramaswamy Aiyer worked, showed
him his mathematics notebooks. As Ramaswamy Aiyer
later recalled:
I was struck by the extraordinary mathematical results contained in it [the notebooks].
I had no mind to smother his genius by an appointment in the lowest rungs of the revenue
department.[36]
Ramaswamy Aiyer sent Ramanujan, with letters of introduction, to his mathematician friends in Madras.[35]
Some of these friends looked at his work and gave him
letters of introduction to R. Ramachandra Rao, the district collector for Nellore and the secretary of the Indian
Mathematical Society.[37][38][39] Ramachandra Rao was

2.2

Contacting English mathematicians

impressed by Ramanujans research but doubted that it

was actually his own work. Ramanujan mentioned a correspondence he had with Professor Saldhana, a notable
Bombay mathematician, in which Saldhana expressed a
lack of understanding of his work but concluded that
he was not a phoney.[40] Ramanujans friend, C. V. Rajagopalachari, persisted with Ramachandra Rao and tried
to quell any doubts over Ramanujans academic integrity.
Rao agreed to give him another chance, and he listened as
Ramanujan discussed elliptic integrals, hypergeometric
series, and his theory of divergent series, which Rao said
ultimately converted him to a belief in Ramanujans
mathematical brilliance.[40] When Rao asked him what
he wanted, Ramanujan replied that he needed some work
and nancial support. Rao consented and sent him to
Madras. He continued his mathematical research with
Raos nancial aid taking care of his daily needs. Ramanujan, with the help of Ramaswamy Aiyer, had his
work published in the Journal of the Indian Mathematical Society.[41]
One of the rst problems he posed in the journal was:

1+2

1 + 3 1 + .

3
Mr. Ramanujans methods were so terse
and novel and his presentation so lacking
in clearness and precision, that the ordinary
[mathematical reader], unaccustomed to such
intellectual gymnastics, could hardly follow
him.[44]
Ramanujan later wrote another paper and also continued
to provide problems in the Journal.[45] In early 1912, he
got a temporary job in the Madras Accountant General's
oce, with a salary of 20 rupees per month. He lasted for
only a few weeks.[46] Toward the end of that assignment
he applied for a position under the Chief Accountant of
the Madras Port Trust. In a letter dated 9 February 1912,
Ramanujan wrote:
Sir,
I understand there is a clerkship vacant in
your oce, and I beg to apply for the same.
I have passed the Matriculation Examination
and studied up to the F.A. but was prevented
from pursuing my studies further owing to several untoward circumstances. I have, however,
been devoting all my time to Mathematics and
developing the subject. I can say I am quite
condent I can do justice to my work if I am
appointed to the post. I therefore beg to request that you will be good enough to confer
the appointment on me.[47]

He waited for a solution to be oered in three issues, over

six months, but failed to receive any. At the end, Ramanujan supplied the solution to the problem himself. On page
105 of his rst notebook, he formulated an equation that
could be used to solve the innitely nested radicals prob- Attached to his application was a recommendation
from E. W. Middlemast, a mathematics professor at
lem.
the Presidency College, who wrote that Ramanujan
was a young man of quite exceptional capacity in

[48]

Mathematics.
Three weeks after he had applied, on

2
2
(x + n)Ramanujan

x+n+a = ax + (n + a) + x a(x + n) + (n + a) +
1 March,
learned that he had been accepted
as a Class III, Grade IV accounting clerk, making 30 ruUsing this equation, the answer to the question posed pees per month.[49] At his oce, Ramanujan easily and
in the Journal was simply 3.[42] Ramanujan wrote his quickly completed the work he was given, so he spent his
rst formal paper for the Journal on the properties of spare time doing mathematical research. Ramanujans
Bernoulli numbers. One property he discovered was that boss, Sir Francis Spring, and S. Narayana Iyer, a colthe denominators (sequence A027642 in OEIS) of the league who was also treasurer of the Indian Mathematfractions of Bernoulli numbers were always divisible by ical Society, encouraged Ramanujan in his mathematical
six. He also devised a method of calculating Bn based on pursuits.
previous Bernoulli numbers. One of these methods went
as follows:
It will be observed that if n is even but not equal to zero,
(i) Bn is a fraction and the numerator of Bnn in its lowest
terms is a prime number,
(ii) the denominator of Bn contains each of the factors 2
and 3 once and only once,
(iii) 2n (2n 1) bnn is an integer and 2(2n 1)Bn consequently is an odd integer.
In his 17-page paper, Some Properties of Bernoullis
Numbers, Ramanujan gave three proofs, two corollaries
and three conjectures.[43] Ramanujans writing initially
had many aws. As Journal editor M. T. Narayana Iyengar noted:

2.2 Contacting English mathematicians

In the spring of 1913, Narayana Iyer, Ramachandra Rao

and E. W. Middlemast tried to present Ramanujans work
to British mathematicians. One mathematician, M. J. M.
Hill of University College London, commented that Ramanujans papers were riddled with holes.[50] He said that
although Ramanujan had a taste for mathematics, and
some ability, he lacked the educational background and
foundation needed to be accepted by mathematicians.[51]
Although Hill did not oer to take Ramanujan on as a
student, he did give thorough and serious professional advice on his work. With the help of friends, Ramanujan

LIFE IN ENGLAND

drafted letters to leading mathematicians at Cambridge Indian Students met with Ramanujan to discuss the overUniversity.[52]
seas trip.[61] In accordance with his Brahmin upbringrefused to leave his country to go to
The rst two professors, H. F. Baker and E. W. Hob- ing, Ramanujan[62]
a
foreign
land.
Meanwhile, Ramanujan sent a letter
[53]
son, returned Ramanujans papers without comment.
packed
with
theorems
to Hardy, writing, I have found a
On 16 January 1913, Ramanujan wrote to G. H. Hardy.
friend
in
you
who
views
my labour sympathetically.[63]
Coming from an unknown mathematician, the nine pages
To supplement Hardys endorsement, a former mathematical lecturer at Trinity College, Cambridge, Gilbert
Walker, looked at Ramanujans work and expressed
amazement, urging him to spend time at Cambridge.[64]
As a result of Walkers endorsement, B. Hanumantha
Rao, a mathematics professor at an engineering college,
invited Ramanujans colleague Narayana Iyer to a meeting of the Board of Studies in Mathematics to discuss

1 + x2 /(b + 1)2 1 + x2 /(b + 2)2
)(b
a + 21 ) [65] The board agreed
(a we
+ 12can
do +
for1)(b
S. Ramanujan.
what

dx
=

.
Ramanujan
1 + x2 /(a)2
1 + x2 /(a + 1)2
2 to grant
(a)(b
+ 21 )(baresearch
a + 1) scholarship of 75 ru0
pees per month for the next two years at the University
Hardy was also impressed by some of Ramanujans other of Madras.[66] While he was engaged as a research stuwork relating to innite series:
dent, Ramanujan continued to submit papers to the Journal of the Indian Mathematical Society. In one instance,
Narayana Iyer submitted some theorems of Ramanujan
( )3 (
)3
(
)3
1
13
135
2 on summation of series to the above mathematical journal
15
+9
13
+ =
2
24
246
adding The following theorem is due to S. Ramanujan,
the mathematics student of Madras University. Later in
( )4
(
)4
(
)4
3
November,
British Professor Edward B. Ross of Madras
1
15
159
22
1+9
+17
+25
+ = Christian
.
( 3 ) College,
1
whom Ramanujan had met a few years
2
4
48
4 8 12
2 4
before, stormed into his class one day with his eyes glowThe rst result had already been determined by a math- ing, asking his students, Does Ramanujan know Polish?"
ematician named Bauer. The second one was new to The reason was that in one paper, Ramanujan had anticHardy, and was derived from a class of functions called ipated the work of a Polish mathematician whose paper
a hypergeometric series which had rst been researched had just arrived by the days mail.[67] In his quarterly paby Leonhard Euler and Carl Friedrich Gauss. Compared pers, Ramanujan drew up theorems to make denite into Ramanujans work on integrals, Hardy found these re- tegrals more easily solvable. Working o Giuliano Frulsults much more intriguing.[56] After he saw Ramanu- lanis 1821 integral theorem, Ramanujan formulated genjans theorems on continued fractions on the last page eralisations that could be made to evaluate formerly unof the manuscripts, Hardy commented that they [the- yielding integrals.[68]
orems] defeated me completely; I had never seen anything in the least like them before.[57] He gured that Hardys correspondence with Ramanujan soured after
Ramanujans theorems must be true, because, if they Ramanujan refused to come to England. Hardy enlisted
H. Neville, to mentor
were not true, no one would have the imagination to in- a colleague lecturing in Madras, E.[69]
[57]
and
bring
Ramanujan
to
England.
Neville asked Ravent them. Hardy asked a colleague, J. E. Littlewood,
manujan
why
he
would
not
go
to
Cambridge.
Ramanuto take a look at the papers. Littlewood was amazed by
jan
apparently
had
now
accepted
the
proposal;
as
Neville
the mathematical genius of Ramanujan. After discussing
put
it,
Ramanujan
needed
no
converting
and
that
his
the papers with Littlewood, Hardy concluded that the let[59]
parents
opposition
had
been
withdrawn.
Apparently,
ters were certainly the most remarkable I have received
and commented that Ramanujan was a mathematician Ramanujans mother had a vivid dream in which the famof the highest quality, a man of altogether exceptional ily Goddess, the deity of Namagiri, commanded her to
between her son and the fullment of his
originality and power.[58] One colleague, E. H. Neville, stand no longer[59]
Ramanujan then set sail for England,
lifes
purpose.
later commented that not one [theorem] could have been
leaving
his
wife
to
stay
with his parents in India.
set in the most advanced mathematical examination in the
[59]
world.
of mathematics made Hardy initially view Ramanujans manuscripts as a possible fraud.[54] Hardy recognised some of Ramanujans formulae but others seemed
scarcely possible to believe.[55] One of the theorems
Hardy found scarcely possible to believe was on the bottom of page three (valid for 0 < a < b + 1/2):

On 8 February 1913, Hardy wrote a letter to Ramanujan,

expressing his interest for his work. Hardy also added
that it was essential that I should see proofs of some of
your assertions.[60] Before his letter arrived in Madras
during the third week of February, Hardy contacted the
Indian Oce to plan for Ramanujans trip to Cambridge.
Secretary Arthur Davies of the Advisory Committee for

3 Life in England
Ramanujan boarded the S.S. Nevasa on 17 March 1914,
and at 10 o'clock in the morning, the ship departed from
Madras.[70] He arrived in London on 14 April, with E.
H. Neville waiting for him with a car. Four days later,

3.1

Illness and return to India

5
Ramanujan spent nearly ve years in Cambridge collaborating with Hardy and Littlewood and published a part
of his ndings there. Hardy and Ramanujan had highly
contrasting personalities. Their collaboration was a clash
of dierent cultures, beliefs and working styles. Hardy
was an atheist and an apostle of proof and mathematical
rigour, whereas Ramanujan was a deeply religious man
and relied very strongly on his intuition. While in England, Hardy tried his best to ll the gaps in Ramanujans
education without interrupting his spell of inspiration.

Ramanujan (centre) with other scientists at Trinity College

Ramanujan was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree by

research (this degree was later renamed PhD) in March
1916 for his work on highly composite numbers, the rst
part of which was published as a paper in the Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society. The paper was
over 50 pages with dierent properties of such numbers
proven. Hardy remarked that this was one of the most unusual papers seen in mathematical research at that time
and that Ramanujan showed extraordinary ingenuity in
handling it. 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, following Ardaseer Cursetjee in 1841, 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 rst Indian to be elected a Fellow of
Trinity College, Cambridge.[75]

3.1 Illness and return to India

Plagued by health problems throughout his life, living
in a country far away from home, and obsessively involved with his mathematics, Ramanujans health worsWhewells Court, Trinity College, Cambridge
ened in England, perhaps exacerbated by stress and by the
scarcity of vegetarian food during the First World War.
He was diagnosed with tuberculosis and a severe vitamin
Neville took him to his house on Chesterton Road in deciency and was conned to a sanatorium.
Cambridge. Ramanujan immediately began his work
with Littlewood and Hardy. After six weeks, Ramanu- Ramanujan returned to Kumbakonam, Madras Presijan moved out of Nevilles house and took up residence dency in 1919 and died soon thereafter at the age of 32
on Whewells Court, just a ve-minute walk from Hardys in 1920. His widow, S. Janaki Ammal, moved to Mum1950,
room.[71] Hardy and Ramanujan began to take a look at bai, but returned to Chennai (formerly Madras) in[28]
where
she
lived
until
her
death
at
age
94
in
1994.
Ramanujans notebooks. Hardy had already received 120
theorems from Ramanujan in the rst two letters, but A 1994 analysis of Ramanujans medical records and
there were many more results and theorems to be found symptoms by Dr. D.A.B. Young concluded that it was
in the notebooks. Hardy saw that some were wrong, much more likely he had hepatic amoebiasis, a paraothers had already been discovered, while the rest were sitic infection of the liver widespread in Madras, where
new breakthroughs.[72] Ramanujan left a deep impres- Ramanujan had spent time. He had two episodes of
sion on Hardy and Littlewood. Littlewood commented, dysentery before he left India. When not properly treated,
I can believe that hes at least a Jacobi",[73] while Hardy dysentery can lie dormant for years and lead to hepatic
said he can compare him only with [Leonhard] Euler or amoebiasis,[76] a dicult disease to diagnose, but once
diagnosed readily cured.[76]
Jacobi.[74]

3.2

Personality and spiritual life

Ramanujan has been described as a person with a somewhat shy and quiet disposition, a dignied man with pleasant manners.[77] He lived a rather spartan life while at
Cambridge. Ramanujans rst Indian biographers describe him as rigorously orthodox. Ramanujan credited his acumen to his family goddess, Mahalakshmi
of Namakkal. He looked to her for inspiration in his
work,[78] and claimed to dream of blood drops that symbolised her male consort, Narasimha, after which he
would receive visions of scrolls of complex mathematical content unfolding before his eyes.[79] He often said,
An equation for me has no meaning, unless it represents
a thought of God.[80][81]

MATHEMATICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

One of his remarkable capabilities was the rapid solution

for problems. He was sharing a room with P. C. Mahalanobis who had a problem, Imagine that you are on a
street with houses marked 1 through n. There is a house
in between (x) such that the sum of the house numbers to
the left of it equals the sum of the house numbers to its
right. If n is between 50 and 500, what are n and x?" This
is a bivariate problem with multiple solutions. Ramanujan thought about it and gave the answer with a twist: He
gave a continued fraction. The unusual part was that it
was the solution to the whole class of problems. Mahalanobis was astounded and asked how he did it. It is
simple. The minute I heard the problem, I knew that the
answer was a continued fraction. Which continued fraction, I asked myself. Then the answer came to my mind,
Ramanujan replied.[83][84]

Hardy cites Ramanujan as remarking that all religions

seemed equally true to him.[82] Hardy further argued His intuition also led him to derive some previously unthat Ramanujans religiousness had been romanticised by known identities, such as
Westerners and overstatedin reference to his belief, not
practiceby Indian biographers. At the same time, he
]2 [
]2
( )

remarked on Ramanujans strict observance of vegetari- [

24 34
cos(n)
cosh(n)
anism.
1+2
+ 1+2
=
cosh(n)
cosh(n)

n=1
n=1
for all , where (z) is the gamma function. Expanding into series of powers and equating coecients of 0 ,
4 , and 8 gives some deep identities for the hyperbolic
In mathematics, there is a distinction between having an secant.
insight and having a proof. Ramanujans talent suggested In 1918, Hardy and Ramanujan studied the partition
a plethora of formulae that could then be investigated in function P(n) extensively and gave a non-convergent
depth later. It is said by G. H. Hardy that Ramanujans asymptotic series that permits exact computation of the
discoveries are unusually rich and that there is often more number of partitions of an integer. Hans Rademacher,
to them than initially meets the eye. As a by-product, new in 1937, was able to rene their formula to nd an exact
directions of research were opened up. Examples of the convergent series solution to this problem. Ramanujan
most interesting of these formulae include the intriguing and Hardys work in this area gave rise to a powerful new
innite series for , one of which is given below
method for nding asymptotic formulae, called the circle
method.[85]

Mathematical achievements

1
2 2 (4k)!(1103 + 26390k)
=
.

9801
(k!)4 3964k
k=0

He discovered mock theta functions in the last year of his

life.[86] For many years these functions were a mystery,
but they are now known to be the holomorphic parts of
harmonic weak Maass forms.

This result is based on the negative fundamental discriminant d = 458 = 232 with class number h(d) = 2
(note that 571358 = 26390 and that 9801=9999; 4.1 The Ramanujan conjecture
396=499) and is related to the fact that
Main article: RamanujanPetersson conjecture
e

58

= 3964 104.000000177 . . . .

Compare to Heegner numbers, which have class number 1 and yield similar formulae. Ramanujans series for
converges extraordinarily rapidly (exponentially) and
forms the basis of some of the fastest algorithms currently
used to calculate . Truncating the
sum to the rst term
also gives the approximation 9801 2/4412 for , which
is correct to six decimal places. See also the more general
RamanujanSato series.

Although there are numerous statements that could have

borne the name Ramanujan conjecture, there is one statement that was very inuential on later work. In particular, the connection of this conjecture with conjectures of
Andr Weil in algebraic geometry opened up new areas of
research. That Ramanujan conjecture is an assertion on
the size of the tau-function, which has as generating function the discriminant modular form (q), a typical cusp
form in the theory of modular forms. It was nally proven
in 1973, as a consequence of Pierre Deligne's proof of the

7
Weil conjectures. The reduction step involved is compli- 5 HardyRamanujan number 1729
cated. Deligne won a Fields Medal in 1978 for his work
on Weil conjectures.[87]
Main article: 1729 (number)
The number 1729 is known as the HardyRamanujan
number after a famous anecdote of the British mathematician G. H. Hardy regarding a visit to the hospital to
see Ramanujan. In Hardys words:[89]

4.2

Ramanujans notebooks

The two dierent ways are

1729 = 13 + 123 = 93 + 103 .

Further information: Ramanujans lost notebook

While still in Madras, Ramanujan recorded the bulk of
his results in four notebooks of loose leaf paper. These
results were mostly written up without any derivations.
This is probably the origin of the misperception that
Ramanujan was unable to prove his results and simply
thought up the nal result directly. Mathematician Bruce
C. Berndt, in his review of these notebooks and Ramanujans work, says that Ramanujan most certainly was able
to make the proofs of most of his results, but chose not
to.
This style of working may have been for several reasons.
Since paper was very expensive, Ramanujan would do
most of his work and perhaps his proofs on slate, and
then transfer just the results to paper. Using a slate was
common for mathematics students in the Madras Presidency at the time. He was also quite likely to have been
inuenced by the style of G. S. Carr's book studied in
his youth, which stated results without proofs. Finally,
it is possible that Ramanujan considered his workings to
be for his personal interest alone; and therefore recorded
only the results.[88]
The rst notebook has 351 pages with 16 somewhat organised chapters and some unorganised material. The
second notebook has 256 pages in 21 chapters and 100
unorganised pages, with the third notebook containing 33
unorganised pages. The results in his notebooks inspired
numerous papers by later mathematicians trying to prove
what he had found. Hardy himself created papers exploring material from Ramanujans work as did G. N. Watson,
B. M. Wilson, and Bruce Berndt.[88] A fourth notebook
with 87 unorganised pages, the so-called lost notebook,
was rediscovered in 1976 by George Andrews.[76]

Generalizations of this idea have created the notion

of "taxicab numbers". Coincidentally, 1729 is also a
Carmichael number.

6 Other mathematicians views of

Ramanujan
Hardy said : He combined a power of generalization, a
feeling for form, and a capacity for rapid modication of
his hypotheses, that were often really startling, and made
him, in his own peculiar eld, without a rival in his day.
The limitations of his knowledge were as startling as its
profundity. Here was a man who could work out modular
equations and theorems... to orders unheard of, whose
mastery of continued fractions was... beyond that of any
mathematician in the world, who had found for himself
the functional equation of the zeta function and the dominant terms of many of the most famous problems in the
analytic theory of numbers; and yet he had never heard
of a doubly periodic function or of Cauchys theorem,
and had indeed but the vaguest idea of what a function
of a complex variable was....[90] When asked about the
methods employed by Ramanujan to arrive at his solutions, Hardy said that they were arrived at by a process
of mingled argument, intuition, and induction, of which
he was entirely unable to give any coherent account.[91]
He also stated that he had never met his equal, and can
compare him only with Euler or Jacobi.[91]

Quoting K. Srinivasa Rao,[92] As for his place in the

world of Mathematics, we quote Bruce C. Berndt: 'Paul
Erds has passed on to us Hardys personal ratings of
mathematicians. Suppose that we rate mathematicians on
Notebooks 1, 2 and 3 were published as a two-volume set the basis of pure talent on a scale from 0 to 100, Hardy
in 1957 by the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research gave himself a score of 25, J.E. Littlewood 30, David
(TIFR), Mumbai, India. This was a photocopy edition of Hilbert 80 and Ramanujan 100.'"
the original manuscripts, in his own handwriting.
Professor Bruce C. Berndt of the University of Illinois,
In December 2011, as part of the celebrations of the
125th anniversary of Ramanujans birth, TIFR republished the notebooks in a coloured two-volume collectors
edition. These were produced from scanned and microlmed images of the original manuscripts by expert
archivists of Roja Muthiah Research Library, Chennai.

during a lecture at IIT Madras in May 2011, stated that

over the last 40 years, as nearly all of Ramanujans theorems have been proven right, there had been a greater appreciation of Ramanujans work and brilliance. Further,
he stated Ramanujans work was now pervading many areas of modern mathematics and physics.[86][93]

8 IN POPULAR CULTURE

In his book Scientic Edge, the physicist Jayant Narlikar

spoke of Srinivasa Ramanujan, discovered by the Cambridge mathematician Hardy, whose great mathematical
ndings were beginning to be appreciated from 1915 to
1919. His achievements were to be fully understood
much later, well after his untimely death in 1920. For example, his work on the highly composite numbers (numbers with a large number of factors) started a whole new
line of investigations in the theory of such numbers.

Dec, is celebrated as Ramanujan Day by the Government

Arts College, Kumbakonam where he had studied and
later dropped out. It is celebrated by the Department
of Mathematics by organising one-, two-, or three-day
seminars by inviting eminent scholars from universities/colleges, and participants are mainly students of
mathematics, research scholars, and professors from local
colleges. It was planned to celebrate the 125th birthday
in a grand manner by inviting the foreign eminent mathDuring his lifelong mission in educating and propagating ematical scholars of this century viz., G E Andrews. and
Bruce C Berndt, who are very familiar with the contribumathematics among the school children in India, Nigeria and elsewhere, P.K. Srinivasan has continually intro- tions and works of Ramanujan.
Ramanujans work and life are celebrated on 22 Decemduced Ramanujans mathematical works.
ber at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras
in Chennai. The Department of Mathematics celebrates
this day by organising a National Symposium on Math7 Posthumous recognition
ematical Methods and Applications (NSMMA) for one
day by inviting eminent Indian and foreign scholars.
Further information: List of things named after Srinivasa
A prize for young mathematicians from developing
Ramanujan
Ramanujans home state of Tamil Nadu celebrates 22 countries has been created in the name of Ramanujan by the International Centre for Theoretical Physics
(ICTP), in co-operation with the International Mathematical Union, which nominate members of the prize
committee. The Shanmugha Arts, Science, Technology
& Research Academy (SASTRA), based in the state of
Tamil Nadu in South India, has instituted the SASTRA
Ramanujan Prize of $10,000 to be given annually to a
mathematician not exceeding the age of 32 for outstanding contributions in an area of mathematics inuenced by
Ramanujan. The age limit refers to the years Ramanujan lived, having nevertheless still achieved many accomplishments. This prize has been awarded annually since
2005, at an international conference conducted by SASTRA in Kumbakonam, Ramanujans hometown, around
Ramanujans birthday, 22 December.
On the 125th anniversary of his birth, India declared
the birthday of Ramanujan, 22 December, as 'National
Mathematics Day.' The declaration was made by Dr.
Manmohan Singh in Chennai on 26 December 2011.[97]
Dr Manmohan Singh also declared that the year 2012
would be celebrated as the National Mathematics Year.
His residence is now preserved by SASTRA university in
Kumbakonam.

Bust of Ramanujan in the garden of Birla Industrial & Technological Museum.

December (Ramanujans birthday) as 'State IT Day',

memorialising both the man and his achievements, as a
native of Tamil Nadu. A stamp picturing Ramanujan was
released by the Government of India in 1962 the 75th
anniversary of Ramanujans birth commemorating his
achievements in the eld of number theory,[94] and a new
design was issued on 26 December 2011, by the India
Post.[95][96]
Since the Centennial year of Ramanujan, every year 22

8 In popular culture
Ramanujan, an Indo-British collaboration lm,
chronicling the life of Ramanujan, was released in
2014 by the independent lm company Camphor
Cinema.[98] The cast and crew include director
Gnana Rajasekaran, cinematographer Sunny Joseph
and editor B. Lenin.[99][100] Popular Indian and English stars Abhinay Vaddi, Suhasini Maniratnam,
Bhama, Kevin McGowan and Michael Lieber star
in pivotal roles.[101]

9
A lm, based on the book The Man Who Knew
Innity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan by
Robert Kanigel, is being made by Edward Pressman and Matthew Brown with R. Madhavan playing
Ramanujan.[102]
A feature lm is being made based on the book
The Man Who Knew Innity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan by Robert Kanigel; Matt Brown
will direct on his own written script. Dev Patel will
play Srinivasa Ramanujan, Jeremy Irons will play G.
H. Hardy and Devika Bhise will play Ramanujans
wife.[103][104] Filming is set to begin on August 3,
2014 at Trinity College, Cambridge.[105]
A play, First Class Man by Alter Ego
Productions,[106] was based on David Freemans First Class Man. The play is centred around
Ramanujan and his complex and dysfunctional
relationship with Hardy. On 16 October 2011,
it was announced that Roger Spottiswoode, best
known for his James Bond lm Tomorrow Never
Dies, is working on the lm version, starring actor
Siddharth. Like the book and play it is also titled
The First Class Man.[107]
A Disappearing Number is a recent British stage production by the company Complicite that explores the
relationship between Hardy and Ramanujan.
The novel The Indian Clerk by David Leavitt explores in ction the events following Ramanujans
letter to Hardy.[108][109]
Google honoured him on his 125th birth anniversary by replacing its logo with a doodle on its home
page.[110]

Ramanujan summation
Ramanujans constant
Ramanujans ternary quadratic form
Rank of a partition
2719 (number)
List of Indian mathematicians

10 Notes
[1] Berndt, Bruce C. (2005). Ramanujans Notebooks Part V.
SpringerLink. p. 4. ISBN 0-387-94941-0.
[2] Rediscovering Ramanujan. Frontline 16 (17): 650. August 1999. Retrieved 20 December 2012.
[3] Ono, Ken (JuneJuly 2006). Honoring a Gift from Kumbakonam (PDF). Notices of the American Mathematical
Society (Mathematical Association of America) 53 (6):
650. Retrieved 23 June 2007.
[4] Alladi, Krishnaswami (1998). Analytic and Elementary
Number Theory: A Tribute to Mathematical Legend Paul
Erds. Norwell, Massachusetts: Kluwer Academic Publishers. p. 6. ISBN 0-7923-8273-0.
[5] Kanigel 1991, p. 11
[6] Kanigel 1991, pp. 1718
[7] Berndt & Rankin 2001, p. 89
[8] Kanigel 1991, p. 12
[9] Kanigel 1991, p. 13
[10] Kanigel 1991, p. 19

Ramanujan was mentioned in the 1997 lm Good [11] Kanigel 1991, p. 14

Will Hunting, in a scene where professor Gerald Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgard) explains to Sean [12] Kanigel 1991, p. 20
Maguire (Robin Williams) the genius of Will Hunt- [13] Kanigel 1991, p. 25
ing (Matt Damon) by comparing him to Ramanujan.
On 22 March 1988, the PBS Series Nova aired
a documentary about Ramanujan, The Man Who
Loved Numbers (Season 15, Episode 19).[111]
The television series Numb3rs has the character Dr.
Amita Ramanujan, a professor of applied mathematics, named after Ramanujan.[112]
Ramanujans story is both referenced and echoed in
Cyril M. Kornbluth's Gomez.

See also

[14] Berndt & Rankin 2001, p. 9

[15] Hardy, G. H. (1999). Ramanujan: Twelve Lectures on
Subjects Suggested by His Life and Work. Providence,
Rhode Island: American Mathematical Society. p. 2.
ISBN 0-8218-2023-0.
[16] Kanigel 1991, p. 27
[17] Kanigel 1991, p. 39
[18] A to Z of mathematicians by Tucker McElroy 2005 ISBN
0-8160-5338-3-page 221
[19] Collected papers of Srinivasa Ramanujan Srinivasa Ramanujan Aiyangar, Godfrey Harold Hardy, P. Vekatesvara Seshu Aiyar 2000 ISBN 0-8218-2076-1 page xii

List of amateur mathematicians

[20] Kanigel 1991, p. 90

Ramanujan graph

[21] Kanigel 1991, p. 28

10

10 NOTES

[22] Kanigel 1991, p. 45

[52] Kanigel 1991, p. 106

[23] Kanigel 1991, p. 47

[53] Kanigel 1991, pp. 170171

[24] Ramanujan lost and found: a 1905 letter from The

Hindu". The Hindu (Chennai, India). 25 December 2011.

[54] Snow, C. P. (1966). Variety of Men. New York: Charles

Scribner. pp. 3031.

[25] Kanigel 1991, pp. 4849

[55] Hardy, G. H. (June 1920). Obituary, S. Ramanujan.

Nature 105 (7): 494. Bibcode:1920Natur.105..494H.
doi:10.1038/105494a0.

[26] Kanigel 1991, pp. 5556

[27] Kanigel 1991, p. 71
[28] Ramanujans wife: Janakiammal (Janaki)" (PDF). Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai. Retrieved 10
November 2012.
[29] Kanigel 1991, p. 72
[30] Ramanujan, Srinivasa (1968). P. K. Srinivasan, ed. Ramanujan Memorial Number: Letters and Reminiscences.
Madras: Muthialpet High School. Vol. 1, p100.

[56] Kanigel 1991, p. 167

[57] Kanigel 1991, p. 168
[58] Hardy (June 1920), pp494495.
[59] Neville, Eric Harold (March 1942).
Srinivasa Ramanujan.
Nature 149 (3776):
293.
Bibcode:1942Natur.149..292N. doi:10.1038/149292a0.
[60] Letter, Hardy to Ramanujan, 8 February 1913.

[31] Kanigel 1991, p. 73

[61] Letter, Ramanujan to Hardy, 22 January 1914.

[32] Kanigel 1991, pp. 7475

[62] Kanigel 1991, p. 185

[33] Ranganathan, Shiyali Ramamrita (1967). Ramanujan:

The Man and the Mathematician. Bombay: Asia Publishing House., p. 23.

[63] Letter, Ramanujan to Hardy, 27 February 1913,

Cambridge University Library.

[34] Srinivasan (1968), Vol. 1, p99.

[35] Kanigel 1991, p. 77
[36] Srinivasan (1968), Vol. 1, p129.
[37] Srinivasan (1968), Vol. 1, p86.
[38] Neville, Eric Harold (January 1921). The Late Srinivasa Ramanujan.
Nature 106 (2673): 661662.
Bibcode:1921Natur.106..661N. doi:10.1038/106661b0.

[64] Kanigel 1991, p. 175

[65] Ram, Suresh (1972). Srinivasa Ramanujan. New Delhi:
National Book Trust. p. 29.
[66] Ranganathan 1967, pp. 3031
[67] Ranganathan 1967, p. 12
[68] Kanigel 1991, p. 183
[69] Kanigel 1991, p. 184

[39] Ranganathan 1967, p. 24

[70] Kanigel 1991, p. 196

[40] Kanigel 1991, p. 80

[71] Kanigel 1991, p. 202

[41] Kanigel 1991, p. 86

[42] Kanigel 1991, p. 87

[72] Hardy, G. H. (1940).

Ramanujan.
Cambridge University Press. p. 10.

[43] Kanigel 1991, p. 91

[73] Letter, Littlewood to Hardy, early March 1913.

[44] Seshu Iyer, P. V. (June 1920). The Late Mr. S. Ramanujan, B.A., F.R.S. Journal of the Indian Mathematical Society 12 (3): 83.

[74] Hardy, G. H. (1979). Collected Papers of G. H. Hardy.

Oxford, England: Clarendon Press. Vol. 7, p720.

[45] Neville (March 1942), p292.

[46] Srinivasan (1968), p176.

Cambridge:

[75] Kanigel 1991, pp. 299300

[76] Peterson, Doug. Raiders of the Lost Notebook. UIUC
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 11 January 2014.

[47] Srinivasan (1968), p31.

[77] Ramanujans Personality.
[48] Srinivasan (1968), p49.
[78] Kanigel 1991, p. 36
[49] Kanigel 1991, p. 96
[50] Kanigel 1991, p. 105
[51] Letter from M. J. M. Hill to a C. L. T. Grith (a former student who sent the request to Hill on Ramanujans
behalf), 28 November 1912.

[79] Kanigel 1991, p. 281

[80] Quote by Srinivasa Ramanujan Iyengar.
[81] Chaitin, Gregory (28 July 2007). Less Proof, More
Truth. NewScientist (2614): 49.

11

[82] Kanigel 1991, p. 283

[83] Ranganathan 1967, p. 82

[107] News / National : James Bond director to make lm on

Ramanujan. The Hindu (India). 16 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2011.

[84] Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao (1997). Statistics and [108] Nell Freudenberger (16 September 2007). Lust for
truth: putting chance to work. World Scientic. p. 185.
Numbers. The New York Times. Retrieved 4 SeptemISBN 978-981-02-3111-8. Retrieved 7 June 2010.
ber 2011.
[85] Partition Formula.

[109] DJ Taylor (26 January 2008). Adding up to a life. The

Guardian (UK). Retrieved 4 September 2011.
[86] 100-Year-Old Deathbed Dreams of Mathematician
Proved True. Fox News. 28 December 2012.
[110] Google doodles for Ramanujans 125th birthday. Times
[87] Ono (JuneJuly 2006), p649.
[88] Ramanujans Notebooks.
[89] Quotations by Hardy. Gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk. Retrieved
20 November 2012.

of India. 22 December 2012. Archived from the original

on 22 December 2012. Retrieved 22 December 2012.
[111] The Man Who Loved Numbers. Pbs.org. Retrieved 18
October 2011.
[112] http://www.tv.com/people/navi-rawat/

[90] Ramanujan quote.

[91] Srinivasa Ramanujan. Retrieved 2 December 2010.
[92] K Srinivasa Rao. Srinivasa Ramanujan (22 December
1887 26 April 1920)".
[93] Bruce Berndt on Ramanujans Lost Notebook, IIT
Madras, 24th May 2011. youtube.com.
[94] Stamps released in 1962. Indian Postage Stamps. Retrieved 22 May 2012.
[95] Stamps 2011. India Post. Retrieved 22 May 2012.
[96] India Post Issued a Commemorative Stamp on S Ramanujan. Phila Mirror. 26 December 2011. Retrieved
22 May 2012.
[97] News / National :". CNN IBN. India. Retrieved 26 December 2011.
[98] "'Ramanujan' Makers Shoot in His House. Indiatimes
(Times Internet Limited.). Retrieved 12 July 2013.
[99] Camphor Cinema Presents Their First Film Ramanujan.
Box Oce India. Select Publishing Company. Retrieved
12 July 2013.
[100] Makers of 'Ramanujan' shoot in genius house. http:
//zeenews.india.com/''. Zee Media Corporation Ltd. Retrieved 12 July 2013.
[101] Krishnamachari, Suganthy (27 June 2013). Travails of a
genius. The Hindu (Chennai, India). Retrieved 12 July
2013.
[102] Two Hollywood movies on Ramanujan soon. Sify.com.
30 March 2006. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
[103] Cannes: Dev Patel to Star as Famed Indian Mathematician. hollywoodreporter.com.
[104] Jeremy Irons to Co-star in The Man Who Knew Innity". variety.com.
[105] Dev Patels The Man Who Knew Innity Moves to Production After 8 Years in Development. variety.com.
[106] First Class Man. Alteregoproductions.org. Retrieved
20 November 2012.

11 Selected publications by Ramanujan

Srinivasa Ramanujan, G. H. Hardy, P. V. Seshu Aiyar, B. M. Wilson, Bruce C. Berndt (2000). Collected Papers of Srinivasa Ramanujan. AMS. ISBN
0-8218-2076-1.
This book was originally published in 1927 after Ramanujans death. It contains the 37 papers published in professional journals by Ramanujan during his lifetime. The third reprint
contains additional commentary by Bruce C.
Berndt.
S. Ramanujan (1957). Notebooks (2 Volumes).
Bombay: Tata Institute of Fundamental Research.
These books contain photocopies of the original notebooks as written by Ramanujan.
S. Ramanujan (1988). The Lost Notebook and Other
Unpublished Papers. New Delhi: Narosa. ISBN 3540-18726-X.
This book contains photo copies of the pages
of the Lost Notebook.
Problems posed by Ramanujan, Journal of the Indian Mathematical Society.
S. Ramanujan (2012). Notebooks (2 Volumes).
Bombay: Tata Institute of Fundamental Research.
This was produced from scanned and microlmed images of the original manuscripts by
expert archivists of Roja Muthiah Research Library, Chennai.

12

12

13

Selected publications about Ramanujan and his work

Berndt, Bruce C. (1998). Butzer, P. L.; Oberschelp,

W.; Jongen, H. Th., ed. Charlemagne and His Heritage: 1200 Years of Civilization and Science in Europe (PDF). Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols Verlag.
pp. 119146. ISBN 2-503-50673-9.
Berndt, Bruce C.; Andrews, George E. (2005).
Ramanujans Lost Notebook. Part I. New York:
Springer. ISBN 0-387-25529-X.
Berndt, Bruce C.; Andrews, George E. (2008).
Ramanujans Lost Notebook. Part II. New York:
Springer. ISBN 978-0-387-77765-8.
Berndt, Bruce C.; Andrews, George E. (2012).
Ramanujans Lost Notebook. Part III. New York:
Springer. ISBN 978-1-4614-3809-0.
Berndt, Bruce C.; Andrews, George E. (2013).
Ramanujans Lost Notebook. Part IV. New York:
Springer. ISBN 978-1-4614-4080-2.
Berndt, Bruce C.; Rankin, Robert A. (1995). Ramanujan: Letters and Commentary 9. Providence,
Rhode Island: American Mathematical Society.
ISBN 0-8218-0287-9.

Hardy, G. H. (1999). Ramanujan: Twelve Lectures

on Subjects Suggested by His Life and Work. Providence, Rhode Island: American Mathematical Society. ISBN 0-8218-2023-0.
Henderson, Harry (1995). Modern Mathematicians.
New York: Facts on File Inc. ISBN 0-8160-3235-1.
Kanigel, Robert (1991). The Man Who Knew Innity: a Life of the Genius Ramanujan. New York:
Charles Scribners Sons. ISBN 0-684-19259-4.
Kolata, Gina (19 June 1987).
Remembering a 'Magical Genius". Science, New Series
(American Association for the Advancement of Science) 236 (4808): 15191521.
doi:10.1126/science.236.4808.1519.
Leavitt, David (2007). The Indian Clerk (paperback
ed.). London: Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-0-74759370-6.
Narlikar, Jayant V. (2003). Scientic Edge: the Indian Scientist From Vedic to Modern Times. New
Delhi, India: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-3030280.
Sankaran, T. M. (2005). Srinivasa RamanujanGanitha lokathile Mahaprathibha (in Malayalam).
Kochi, India: Kerala Sastra Sahithya Parishath.

Berndt, Bruce C.; Rankin, Robert A. (2001). Ra- 13

manujan: Essays and Surveys 22. Providence,
Rhode Island: American Mathematical Society.
13.1
ISBN 0-8218-2624-7.
Berndt, Bruce C. (2006). Number Theory in the
Spirit of Ramanujan 9. Providence, Rhode Island:
American Mathematical Society. ISBN 0-82184178-5.
Berndt, Bruce C. (1985). Ramanujans Notebooks.
Part I. New York: Springer. ISBN 0-387-96110-0.
Berndt, Bruce C. (1999). Ramanujans Notebooks.
Part II. New York: Springer. ISBN 0-387-96794X.

EXTERNAL LINKS

External links
Media links

Biswas, Soutik (16 March 2006). Film to celebrate

mathematics genius. BBC. Retrieved 24 August
2006.
Feature Film on Mathematics Genius Ramanujan by
Dev Benegal and Stephen Fry
BBC radio programme about Ramanujan episode
5
A biographical song about Ramanujans life
P.B.S. Nova Series: The Man Who Loved Numbers (1988)

Berndt, Bruce C. (2004). Ramanujans Notebooks.

Part III. New York: Springer. ISBN 0-387-975039.
13.2

Biographical links

Berndt, Bruce C. (1993). Ramanujans Notebooks.

Part IV. New York: Springer. ISBN 0-387-941096.

Srinivasa Ramanujan at the Mathematics Genealogy

Project

Berndt, Bruce C. (2005). Ramanujans Notebooks.

Part V. New York: Springer. ISBN 0-387-94941-0.

O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F.,

Srinivasa Ramanujan, MacTutor History of
Mathematics archive, University of St Andrews.

Hardy, G. H. (1978). Ramanujan. New York:

Chelsea Pub. Co. ISBN 0-8284-0136-5.

Weisstein, Eric W., Ramanujan, Srinivasa (1887

1920) from ScienceWorld.

13.3

Other links

Srinivasa Aiyangar Ramanujan

A short biography of Ramanujan
Our Devoted Site for Great Mathematical Genius

13.3

Other links

A Study Group For Mathematics: Srinivasa Ramanujan Iyengar

The Ramanujan Journal An international journal
devoted to Ramanujan
International Math Union Prizes, including a Ramanujan Prize.
Hindu.com: Norwegian and Indian mathematical
geniuses, RAMANUJAN Essays and Surveys,
Ramanujans growing inuence, Ramanujans mentor
Hindu.com: The sponsor of Ramanujan
Bruce C. Berndt; Robert A. Rankin (2000).
The Books Studied by Ramanujan in India.
American Mathematical Monthly (Mathematical
Association of America) 107 (7): 595601.
doi:10.2307/2589114. JSTOR 2589114. MR
1786233.
Ramanujans mock theta function puzzle solved
Ramanujans papers and notebooks
Sample page from the second notebook
Ramanujan on Fried Eye
Clark, Alex. 163 and Ramanujan Constant. Numberphile. Brady Haran.

13

14

14

14
14.1

TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

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Adoniscik, EamonnPKeane, YurikBot, Wavelength, RobotE, Ventolin, Conscious, Zaroblue05, Lenthe, Thoreaulylazy, Gaius Cornelius,
Member, NawlinWiki, Rak3sh, Shreshth91, Thatdog, Lowe4091, Chick Bowen, Stompbox, Banes, DYLAN LENNON~enwiki, Moe
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Hawker07, MythosMagic, Ramprakashpalaparty, Robert Goddard, MThekkumthala, Vanischenu, Marcokrt, BattyBot, Sumitkumarjha75,

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Justincheng12345-bot, Pratyya Ghosh, Arr4, Cyberbot II, Ancienzus, Cpt.a.haddock, Soni, Dexbot, Jaspermogg, Magentic Manifestations, Webclient101, Nandagopal.v, Aumkaar Pranav, Aloak1, Siberian Patriot, Nikhilvsrockz, Frosty, Graphium, HullIntegrity, Danny
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Suresh151622, Daivaghna, BarnQuest, Supdiop, Samanvaylamba, Agrawalsanskar, Prateek Proo, Rishabh23599 and Anonymous: 985

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