From Aryabhatta to Ramanujan: Five fascinating facts about Indian mathematicians

International Day of Mathematics also known as Pi Day is celebrated to draw attention towards the significance of mathematics in our daily lives This day was finalised to be written in the format MMDD to represent the value of Pi which is 314 Global educators and mathematicians celebrate this day to recognize and appreciate the ease that mathematics facilitates in our livesOn this day we bring to you the top five Indian mathematicians and their groundbreaking contributions to the world of numbersAryabhattaAryabhatta an Indian mathematician and astronomer was born in 476 AD in the region of Kusumapura He is considered to be one of the most influential people in the development of Indian mathematics and astronomy He invented the concept of the number lsquo0rsquo which was a significant development in the history of mathematics His ideas were influential in the development of trigonometry Aryabhatta has also taught lessons on how to solve quadratic equations extract square roots and predict eclipsesShakuntala DeviShakuntala Devi was an Indian mathematician mental calculator and a writer who was born on November 4 1929 in Bangalore India Known for her exceptional abilities in mental calculations she was rightfully called as the lsquohuman computer She demonstrated her abilities publicly for the first time when she was six years old She did not receive any formal education in mathematics She was a prodigious learner and reportedly mastered complex calculations at a very young ageBrahmaguptaBrahmagupta was an Indian mathematician born in 598 AD in the region of Rajasthan India He is considered to be one of the most important mathematicians of ancient India and his work had a significant impact on the development of mathematics and astronomy at a global level He introduced the concept of negative numbers and gave rules for their arithmetic operations He also devised formulas for the areas and volumes of various geometric shapes such as triangles circles and spheres He also discussed various methods for solving arithmetic problems such as finding the square root of a number Brahmagupta also gave methods for computing compound interest and exchange ratesSrinivasa RamanujanSrinivasa Ramanujan is considered to be one of the greatest mathematicians in history He was born on December 22 1887 in Erode a town in the southern state of Tamil Nadu India Despite having no formal training in mathematics Ramanujan made groundbreaking contributions to various fields of mathematics including number theory infinite series and continued fractions He showed a natural aptitude for mathematics from a young age but his family was poor and he was unable to pursue higher education in the subject However he continued to study mathematics independently and made several significant discoveries on his own Ramanujans most important contributions were in the field of number theory He developed new ways of looking at and understanding prime numbers and their distribution and he made several significant discoveries about the properties of highly composite numbers He also developed new methods for calculating the values of various mathematical functions including the Riemann zeta functionHarish ChandraHarish Chandra was a prominent IndianAmerican mathematician and physicist known for his contributions to representation theory harmonic analysis and the theory of semi simple Lie groups He was born on October 11 1923 in Kanpur India Harish Chandras work in mathematics and physics was highly influential and has had a significant impact on these fields His research focused on the representation theory of lie groups and related topics Harish Chandras contributions to mathematics and physics have had a profound impact on these fields and his work has been influential in many areas of research He is widely regarded as one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century and his legacy continues to inspire mathematicians and physicists todayRead More New teachers share experiences from their pandemicinduced virtual debut