Ramanujan: Letters and Commentary, by Bruce C. Berndt and Robert A.
Rankin,
Originally published by The American Mathematical Society, Special Indian Edition
published by Affiliated East West Press, Rs. 295/, 1997.
“I beg to introduce myself to you as a clerk in the Accounts Department of the Port Trust
Office at Madras on a salary of only 20 Pounds per annum.” Thus began Ramanujan’s
first letter to G. H. Hardy, arguably the most famous letter in the history of mathematics.
The letter contained several pages of mathematical results which were absolutely
astounding. And all this from a man not in Cambridge or Paris but in remote Madras, and
to top it all, without any formal training in Mathematics! Thus began the process of dis-
covery and recognition of Srinivas Ramanujan, one of the greatest mathematicians of his
time.
. Born in a poor Brahmin household in Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu, Ramanujan had an
uneventful schooling. The only thing which set him apart from an ordinary schoolboy was
a passion for Mathematics. Though his access to Mathematical literature was very lim-
ited, he was able to arrive at some astounding results, good enough to convince some
people to get him a job as a clerk in the Port Trust at Madras. Then in 1913, Ramanujan
wrote two letters to Hardy, describing some of his work. Hardy, the preeminent mathe-
matician in the English speaking world at that time, was sufficiently impressed to arrange
for his coming to Cambridge. This was the beginning of a relationship which was to last
till Ramanujan’s untimely death in 1920.
Ramanujan’s work was primarily in an abstruse field of mathematics known as analytic
number theory. The work was extraordinary enough for him to be made a Fellow of the
Royal Society in 1918, the second Indian to be so honored. But it is not only the nature of
his work which is awe inspiring; his style of working and his method to arrive at the re-
sults is equally intriguing. Einstein is reported to have remarked once that genius is 99%
perspiration and 1% inspiration. In Ramanujan’s case, the proportions were almost cer-
tainly reversed! He would come up with results which were true and yet have no proof for
them. When queried, he would credit the goddess Namakal for revealing it to him in his
dreams! Given that even after 6 decades of his death, mathematicians are still trying to
prove some of his conjectures, the results were truly remarkable.
This collection of letters brought out by Bruce Berndt and Robert Rankin brings out Ra-
manujan’s personality well. The authors have used a variety of sources ranging from the
National Archives to the personal collection of Ramanujan’s friends and relatives. The
letters, both personal and those related to his work are supplemented with a fairly de-
tailed commentary. The commentary not only gives us references to related mathemati-
cal work but also provides interesting biographical details of some of the persona who
played an important role in Ramanujan’s life. For instance, Sir Gilbert Walker, Head of
the Meteorological Observatory in Madras and one of the first to recognize Ramanujan’s
extraordinary talents was a pioneer in weather forecasting and did a lot of work on the
Indian Monsoon. The book is exhaustive in detail and will serve as a valuable research
tool for historians and mathematicians. For the interested lay reader, it will provide a
glimpse into the troubled and restless life of the enigmatic genius. Though not as detailed
in biographical terms as Robert Kanigel’s excellent biography, “The Man Who Knew In-
finity”, there are still interesting insights which the letters provide.
The story of Ramanujan raises certain very interesting questions. Firstly, the creative
process itself becomes mysterious when one considers his work, without formal training
in the discipline of mathematics. Could it be that mathematics, the rational science, is in
fact closer to art and literature where the rational is not so important? How important is a
formal training to be creative? There is also the argument that Ramanujan did what he
did not in spite of but because of a lack of formal training in mathematics! This is be-
cause, the argument goes, formal instruction numbs the creative impulse by an overdose
of rigor and discipline. Another controversial aspect is the treatment meted out to him by
his peers in India before he was recognized by Hardy. It needed an Englishman to stamp
his seal of approval on his intellect for his countrymen to value him. One may argue that
colonialism was responsible for this attitude. But the sad truth is that even now, we with
the third (or maybe now even the second) largest scientific manpower, still look towards
the West for approval? How is it that we have not been able to develop enough confi-
dence in ourselves, like say the erstwhile Soviet Union, to confront the West intellectual-
ly?
Berndt and Rankin need to be congratulated for bringing out this fascinating collection.
The letters bring out the human being in Ramanujan without detracting from his great-
ness in any way, though it is debatable whether we will ever come to know how the mind
of the “Man who knew Infinity” worked.
