Aadu Puli Aatam, Mathematics, and Divine Inspiration

SRINIVASA Ramanujan was a legendary Indian mathematical prodigy whose life interwove spirituality with scientific genius.

- VINITA SIDHARTHA

Narasimha Swamy Temple in Namakkal, Tamil Nadu

Interestingly, there is a fascinating link to traditional games in his life.Ramanujan is believed to have independently compiled nearly 3,900 original mathematical results in his short life. Yet, he attributed his genius not to his intellect but to gifts from a higher power, the Goddess Namagiri, the patron deity of his family.

According to Ramanujan and those close to him, the goddess appeared to him in dreams, revealing intricate mathematical formulas which he later wrote down. "An equation for me has no meaning, unless it expresses a thought of god," he said.

His grasp of mathematics was way beyond his age. Entirely self-taught beyond secondary school, he started recording original results in notebooks as a teenager. However, his single minded obsession with mathematics led him to neglect other subjects. He dropped out of college because he failed exams in non-math topics.