(1887 - 1920)
Galileo Died At The Hands Of Inquisition And I Will Die Of Poverty

Shrinivas Ramanujan in his short life-span, proved to be a mathematical genius comparable to the likes of Karl Jacobi and Leonhaed Euler. Despite lack of formal higher education and battling against heavy odds like poverty and ill health, his mathematical genius flowed unhindered. His contribution in the fields of elliptic functions, infinite series and the analytical theory of numbers is immeasurable. Even after his death at the young age of 32, his notes continued to be a subject of research and a source of further mathematical theorems, formulae and solutions.

Born in India, which was then under British rule, he received encouragement and recognition not only from discerning Indians but also from his contemporary British mathematicians. Against the dictum of his religion, he traveled overseas to Britain where he collaborated with Prof. Hardy at the Trinity College. Between 1914-1918, which coincided with World War I, Ramanujan stayed and worked at the Trinity College. Though his health was deteriorating, his mental faculties and mathematical genius flourished. It took an impressive list of eminent mathematicians to propose his name for election as a Fellow at The Royal Society of London. This unique honor was conferred on him on May 2, 1918. Read on to have an insight into the life and mind of one of the most prolific and yet elusive Indian personality who left behind a mathematical legacy, for others to reveal.