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Here is a student who my
mathematics assistant says, has displayed in his answers a remarkable ability &
deserved more marks than the maximum itself. |
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This (1904 -1911) is the
period of super activity … His research marched undeterred by any environmental
factors – physical, economic or social…magic squares, numbers – prime &
composite, Elliptic Integrals & several such regions of mathematics entered his
thoughts …. Hardly any thought had been given in the country to some of these
problems…. Everything had to be discovered by him de novo… surely all this could
not be seized by intellect alone. Intuition should have played a large part in this period
of super activity, Ramanujan was indeed a drasta (seer) in mathematics." - S R Ranganathan in his
biography |
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I was exceedingly interested
by your letter and by the theorems which you state. You will however understand that,
before I can judge properly of the value of what you have done, it is essential that I
should see proofs of some of your assertions. Your results seem to me to fall into roughly
three classes."
- There are a number of results that are
already known, or easily deducible from known theorems.
- There are results which, so far as I know
are new and interesting; but interesting rather from their curiosity and apparent
difficulty from their importance.
- There are results which appear to be new and
important….
Hardy in his first letter
to Ramanujan |
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I had to try to teach him and in some measure, I succeeded, though obviously I learnt from him much more than he learnt from me. He was never a mathematician of modern school and it was hardly desirable that he should become one.
- Hardy |
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The discovery of the genius of S Ramanujan promises to be the most interesting event of one time in the mathematical world. |
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The limitations of his knowledge were as startling as its profundity….All his results new or old, right or wrong had been arrived at by a process of mingled argument, intuition & induction.
- Hardy |
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To Ramanujan, every integer was a personal friend.
- Littlewood |
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Had Ramanujan not left India, he might be alive today but he would have had always the sense of weakness and frustration, not of power and accomplishment. Death too was a frustration but the life’s purpose of which his mother dreamed was at last in part fulfilled and it is better to be frustrated by unsought death than by life.
Neville on hearing the news of his death |
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The greatest mathematician of
the century. Julian
Huxley |
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A gift from heaven. E T Bell |
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Mathematician
in India inevitably makes one think of one extraordinary figure of recent times. This was
Shrinivasa Ramanujan…. Prof Julian Huxley has referred to him as the Greatest
Mathematician of the century.
Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru |
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