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Srinivasa Ramanujan
श्रीनिवास रामानुजन
The man who knew infinity — mathematics from a vision
Years
1887 – 1920
Known as
Srinivasa Ramanujan
Birthplace
Erode, Tamil Nadu
Field
Scientists & Thinkers
“An equation for me has no meaning unless it expresses a thought of God.”
— Srinivasa Ramanujan
The Story
Ramanujan was born in a poor Tamil Brahmin family in 1887 and grew up in Kumbakonam. He was a solitary genius: failing college because he ignored everything except mathematics, he filled notebooks with thousands of results — no derivations, just conclusions, as if they were handed to him in visions.
In 1913 he sent a letter of his formulas to the great Cambridge mathematician G.H. Hardy. Hardy later said the formulas 'must be true, because if they were not true, no one would have had the imagination to invent them.' Hardy brought him to Cambridge, where the self-taught genius became a Fellow of the Royal Society at 30.
Ramanujan's legacy includes the partition function, modular forms, and the mysterious 'Ramanujan-Hardy number' 1729 — the smallest number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two ways. He died of illness at just 32, leaving notebooks that mathematicians are still mining today — now powering everything from black-hole physics to modern computing.
Core Ideas
Notebooks of Genius
Thousands of unproved results written as if from another world.
The Number 1729
The famous taxi-cab number — the smallest expressible as two cubes, two ways.
Partition & Modular Forms
Work that now underpins physics and computer science.
Self-Taught
Nearly no formal training — pure, blazing intuition.
Fellow of the Royal Society
The highest honour, achieved at 30 by a clerk of Bhārat.
Why it matters today
Ramanujan's formulas are now used in string theory, black-hole research, and algorithms. His life is the ultimate proof that genius needs no university — only an untamed mind and a notebook.