National Mathematics Day in India is celebrated every year on December 22, marking the birth anniversary of the legendary mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan. In 2012, then Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh declared this day to honor Ramanujan’s immense contribution to mathematics.
The day not only commemorates his legacy but also highlights the importance of mathematics in everyday life. Mathematics has greatly advanced fields such as accounting, finance, technology, scientific research, and economics.
Srinivasa Ramanujan: Early Life and Contributions
Born in 1887 in Erode, Tamil Nadu, to a Tamil Brahmin family, Ramanujan was renowned for his deep understanding of infinite series. His major contributions include theories on numbers and mathematical functions, as well as the discovery of the divergent series, Riemann series, hypergeometric series, and functional equations of the zeta function.
Celebrating Indian Mathematicians
National Mathematics Day also celebrates the achievements of other prominent Indian mathematicians like Aryabhata, Mahavira, Brahmagupta, and Bhaskara II.
Ramanujan’s Struggles and Triumphs
Ramanujan’s passion for mathematics started in his childhood, despite facing severe poverty. He gained knowledge independently, studying George Shoobridge Carr’s Synopsis of Elementary Results in Pure and Applied Mathematics. In 1911, he published his first paper in the Journal of the Indian Mathematical Society, and later earned a BA degree from Cambridge University in 1916. Ramanujan published numerous papers and was elected to the Royal Society for his work on elliptic functions and number theory.
Ramanujan passed away at the age of 32 on April 26, 1920, but his contributions continue to shape various scientific fields. He is credited with discovering his own theorems and independently compiling nearly 4,000 results.
Inspiring the Next Generation of Mathematicians
On National Mathematics Day, students are encouraged to go beyond textbooks, engage in critical thinking, and participate in competitions and educational events. The day aims to inspire curiosity about mathematics, fostering a deeper understanding of its relevance in the world.
