National Mathematics Day is observed every year on December 22 to honor the birth anniversary of the renowned mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan. Born in 1887 in Erode, Tamil Nadu, Ramanujan lacked formal training in pure mathematics.
Recognized as one of the greatest Indian mathematicians, Ramanujan tackled seemingly insurmountable theorems. His contributions encompassed areas such as continued fractions, Riemann series, elliptic integrals, hypergeometric series, and functional equations of the zeta function.
Despite passing away at the young age of 32 in 1920, it took several years for the Government of India to establish National Mathematics Day in his honor. In 2012, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh officially designated December 22 as National Mathematics Day, also marking 2012 as the National Mathematics Year.
Significantly, the 2012 India stamp featured Srinivasa Ramanujan, and in 2017, the Ramanujan Math Park was inaugurated in Kuppam, Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh, on the same date.
Notably, Robert Kanigel authored a biography of the Indian mathematician in 1991, later adapted into a movie by Matthew Brown in 2016. Both the book and the film provide a comprehensive account of Ramanujan's upbringing in India, his accomplishments, and his mathematical collaboration with fellow mathematician GH Hardy.
