Srinivasa Ramanujan was one of the best mathematicians who ever lived. Every year on December 22, the country honors his genius as National Mathematics Day (NMD).

To honor Ramanujan’s unique contributions to the field of mathematics and raise knowledge of how important the subject is, today is a national holiday. This year marks the 125th anniversary of Ramanujan’s birth.

Srinivasa raman

National Math Day: A Timeline of Events

This timeline tells you about Srinivasa Ramanujan’s life and the things he wrote.

• 1887: The famous scientist was born in Erode, Tamil Nadu, to a Brahmin Iyengar family. He liked math ever since he was a child, which is why he learned trigonometry by the time he was 12. He could also get a scholarship to go to the Government Arts College in Kumbakonam.
• 1912: In 1912, Srinivasa Ramanujan began working as a clerk for the Madras Port Trust. Some of his coworkers noticed how good he was at math, and one of them told Professor GH Hardy at Trinity College, Cambridge University, about him. In 1913, he met Hardy and then went to Trinity College.
• 1916: This is the year Ramanujan got his Bachelor of Science. After that, with Hardy’s help, he wrote a number of studies on the subject.
• 1917: Ramanujan became a member of the London Mathematical Society.
  The great mathematician was elected to the Royal Society in 1918 for his work on elliptic functions and the science of numbers. Besides that, he was the first Indian to be made a Fellow of Trinity College.
  Ramanujan went back to India in 1919.
• 1920: He died on April 26 because his health was getting worse. He was only 32 years old.

Background on National Mathematics Day’s history

National Mathematics Day got its start in 2012, when the Manmohan Singh government made December 22 the official day to celebrate it. Today is also Srinivasa Ramanujan’s birthday.

He was born on December 22, 1887, in Erode, Tamil Nadu. 2012 was also recognized as the National Mathematics Year, which brought attention to the huge role mathematics plays in advancing society.

Srinivasa Ramanujan: A Beautiful Mind in Math

Ramanujan showed how good he was at math at a very young age. His interest in trigonometry began when he was 12, and at age 15, he bought George Shoobridge Carr’s “Synopsis of Elementary Results in Pure and Applied Mathematics.”

He did important work with elliptic integrals, continued fractions, Riemann series, hypergeometric series, and functional equations of the zeta function.

Ramanujan’s first mathematical work was published in the Journal of the Indian Mathematical Society in 1911. This was his official start in the field of mathematics.

In 1916, he got a B.A. by study from Cambridge University, which was the end of his academic journey.

Even though he had a hard life and was poor as a child, Ramanujan left an indelible mark on mathematics by coming up with about 4,000 new theories.