India has declared 2012 as "National Year of Mathematics" as tribute to Srinivasa Ramanujan, an enigmatic maths maverick who despite dying aged just 32 had already achieved enough to still be spoken of alongside Isaac Newton, Euclid and Archemedes.
Celebrating Ramanujan and reviving mathematics is part of India's greater plan to invest more in science training. Countries like China have overtaken India in science, said Manmohan while inaugurating the 99th Indian Science Congress on January 3, in the eastern coast city of Bhubaneswar.
Ramanujan is part of a rich, 1,500 years-old Indian heritage of mathematics and astronomy. Luminaries like Brahmagupta in the 6th century AD, Bhaskara (600-680 AD) Sankara Narayana (840-900 AD) and Vijayanandi (940-1010 AD) created and built upon the foundations of science as we know it today.
Perhaps the greatest of them all was Aryabhata (476- 550 AD), who gave the world the concept and number "zero". He was just 23 years old when the first of his works became known. He calculated the circumference of the Earth, found that the Earth spins on its axis and revolves round the sun. He also realized that the moon was a satellite of the Earth.
Like many others in the genius tribe, Ramanujan was a child prodigy. Nothing comes from nowhere, and genius is nature at work across lifetimes. Extraordinary genius is the long-term effect of a cause at work. Each person is not just the sum total of all one's work in this lifetime, but of previous lifetimes.
sourceRamanujan's work lives on. "Many scientists from around the world have testified that they gained inspiration from the life of Ramanujan," said Ram Murty and Kumar Murty, senior mathematics professors from the Queen's University and University of Toronto, Canada, in the Chennai-based daily Hindu. "As long as the spirit of inquiry is alive, his legacy will pass from one generation to the next."
One of the many moments when we want to say that "We are proud to be the sons and daughters of Mother India"
