Srinivasa Ramanujan Death Anniversary: All you need to know about Math genius

Srinivasa Ramanujan, the math legend is known for his contributions in the field of mathematics. His work is celebrated by mathematicians across the world. The self-taught genius was born on December 22, 1887 however due to an illness that fell upon him in 1919, India lost a legend on April 26, 1920. This year marks the 101st death anniversary of the legend whose birthday is celebrated as National Mathematics Day to give tribute to his achievements. Ramanujan died at the young age of 33.

Personal life

Born and brought up in a small house at Kumbakonam, Ramanujan belonged to Erode town in Tamil Nadu. His family came from a simple background with his father being a clerk and his mother, a housewife. The genius started showing signs of his brilliance since the age of 13 when he started developing his own theorems. It was said that he used to note down his ideas in green ink. He got married after his family found him a 10-year-old bride however they did not live together until his wife was 12. 

Professional life

Srinivasa Ramanujan made productive contributions to elliptic functions, continued fractions, and infinite series, and the analytical theory of numbers. In 1902, he solved cubic equations and used his own theory to solve quartic. Ramanujan taught himself mathematics with the help of a Synopsis of elementary results in a pure mathematics book by G S Carr however the style of the book was completely different and had an unfortunate effect on Srinivasa. Later, he started deep research and investigated equations. 

"An equation means nothing to me unless it expresses a thought of God"- Srinivasa Ramanujan

Achievements

One of Ramanujan's books was later found in the Trinity College library and was published as a book. The genius was invited to Cambridge University by the writer of Orders of Infinity, G H Hardy who had earlier seen some of Srinivasa's book and labelled them "fraud". After joining Cambridge he was called the hero of mathematics. 

At the age of 31, he became the second such genius to have inducted as a Fellow of the Royal Society. The Ramanujan Prime is a prime number named after him for his brilliant contribution to the field of prime numbers. Several movies have been made to show his life and achievements that includes including the 2015 British biographical drama, The Man Who Knew Infinity. The legend returned to India in 1919 when he was extremely sick.