Sanatana Dharma says that each one of us should treat, celebrate and respect four people with the most devotion: mata (mother), pita (father), guru (teacher) and daivam (god). It is said that once you become selflessly devoted to these four, your life will be bliss. There are few blessed souls who, thanks to their karmaphala or the fruits of karma from the previous birth, are blessed with the god not just taking over as the first three – mata, pita and guru – but also blessing them with god-like friends and social circle. We can think of many examples, from Adi Shankara to Chhatrapati Shivaji to Narendra Modi. The history of Bharatavarsha is full of such great people. Mathematics genius, Srinivasa Ramanujan (December 22, 1887 – April 26, 1920), was one such being.
As a two-year-old, Ramanujan was stricken by smallpox, a deadly disease in those days. From there, Komalatammal, his mother, played a pivotal role in tending to him, giving him all he needed and kindling the genius in him. She was part of a bhajan group trying to augment the Rs 20 her husband, K Srinivasa Iyengar, earned as a textile shop employee. She let Ramanujan sit in their attic, away from the noise of the children his age playing while he studied mathematics. She played a huge role for the rest of his life, including goading him to accept the offer to go to Cambridge.
Ramanujan had a real strong-willed lady, Komalatammal, heading the household. Not much is known about Srinivasa Iyengar – his father, except that he was employed in a textile shop at twenty rupees a month. But the real character of Srinivasa can be seen during the period when Ramanujan — at least for the world — was a good-for-nothing son who couldn’t pass an exam in Government Arts College, Kumbakonam and Pachaiyappa’s College, Chennai, and was idling at home. The role of Srinivasa in letting his son do what he wanted, sit on the wooden bench with his slate and work on his mathematics. No parent in such a financial state would let his adult son while away time unless he had supreme confidence in him and his genius.
Ramanujan was self-taught, to start with. While he was still at school, his mother had two young boys who went to the Government Arts College, Kumbakonam, as paying guests at their house due to their financial state. These boys provided Ramanujan with a few math texts from their college library through which he used to build his basics. The headmaster of Kumbakonam Town High School, Krishnaswamy Iyer, encouraged him by awarding a scholarship for his college education, P. V. Sheshu Iyer, his maths professor in Kumbakonam, P. Singaravelu Mudaliyar, his maths professor in Pachaiyappa’s, and many other math aficionados and professors that included Indians and Westerners in Chennai.
Three people played a pivotal role in his Cambridge stint – G. H. Hardy, J. E. Littlewood and E. H. Neville. While on a lecture tour to Madras, Neville spoke to Ramanujan to understand his genius and slowly changed his mind about making the trip to Cambridge. There are others like V. Ramaswami Iyer, R. Ramachandra Rao, S. Narayana Iyer, Sir Francis Spring, the head of Madras Port Trust and E. W. Middlemast, a mathematics professor at Presidency College, Chennai, who wrote a glowing encomium that enabled him a job at Madras Port Trust. Call this a long list of Ramanujan’s gurus/teachers or social circle. The man was blessed to have these people in his life. Otherwise, he could have been easily ignored as an eccentric who did some gymnastics with numbers and symbols.
Most of us know Goddess Namagiri Thayar’s role in his life, his Kuladevi (Namakkal). It is said that she not only came in his dream to provide him solutions to all mathematics problems he was working on but also gave him the go-ahead to cross seas and go to Cambridge.
Many friends, including the very influential C. Rajagopalachari, played a significant role in shaping Ramanujan’s future (C. Rajagopalachari later became the first Indian governor-general of free India, among his many other roles). Without his persistence, Ramanujan wouldn’t have gotten what he wanted from R. Ramachandra Rao, who was then the Collector of the Nellore district and the Secretary of the Indian Mathematical Society.
This article can go on and on elaborating on the influence of Ramanujan’s mother, father, teachers, Goddess Namagiri Thayar and his friends in making him who he was.
Any article about Ramanujan would be incomplete if it didn’t mention this unsung person from his life, someone who got enjoined to his life very early, someone who sacrificed and suffered a lot, not just while she was married to Ramanujan but even after his premature death. Janaki Ammal, his wife. She was just 10 when she married Ramanujan and lost him when she was all of 21.
Srinivasa Ramanujan’s life is a lesson of single-minded focus, perseverance, dedication and the need for the right company of friends and well-wishers to succeed.
Reference(s)
Kanigel, Robert. The man who knew infinity: A life of the genius Ramanujan. Abacus 2016
The author is a marketing communications professional who is currently working with a leading Technology MNC. Currently based in Chennai, he is originally from Urappuli, a village near Paramakudi. He is an avid reader, a history buff, a cricket player, a writer, Sanskrit & Dharma Sastra student. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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