Famous Indian Mathematicians

A self-taught genius Indian mathematician, Srinivasa Ramanujan is known for his contributions to mathematical analysis, number theory and continued fractions. Born into a humble family, the celebrated mathematician struggled with poverty but still managed to publish first of his papers in the Journal of the Indian Mathematical Society. Later, his collaboration with English mathematician G. H. Hardy proved very productive.

Ancient Indian astronomer and mathematician Brahmagupta is best remembered for laying down rules to calculate with zero and for penning the texts Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta and Khaṇḍakhādyaka. His other achievements include his work on surds and positive and negative numbers. He also devised a formula for the area of a cyclic quadrilateral.

A child prodigy who was never formally educated, Shakuntala Devi became a mathematical genius earning the title of Human Computer for her exceptional calculating abilities. The Indian genius was also an astrologer and a gifted writer who authored books on maths, astrology, homosexuality in India and a crime thriller novel.

Remembered for his varied contribution to astrophysics, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar is perhaps best known for his work on the evolution of massive stars. Today known as Chandrasekhar limit, it contributed to final understanding of supernovas, neutron stars, and black holes. A prolific writer, he also did significant work on energy transfer by radiation in stellar atmospheres and convection on solar surface.

Renowned 12th-century mathematician and astronomer Bhāskara II is remembered for producing the first written work with full use of the decimal system. Siddhānta-Śiromani remains his most notable work. He also worked on quadratic equations and succeeded Brahmagupta as the head of the Ujjain cosmic observatory.

Satish Dhawan was an Indian aerospace engineer and mathematician remembered for his research in the field of boundary layers and turbulence. From 1972 to 1984, Dhawan served as the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization during which he played a key role in the development of the space program in India. In 1981, he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan.

Best known for his treatise on mathematical astronomy, Pancha-siddhantika, Indian philosopher, astronomer, and polymath Varahamihira was well-versed in Western astronomy. He had also penned Brihat-Samhita and is believed to have been one of the Navaratnas, or Nine Jewels, of the court of Indian king Yashodharman Vikramaditya.

S. R. Ranganathan was an Indian librarian and mathematician. Ranganathan is best remembered for developing the colon classification, a system of library classification, which is currently used in research libraries all over the world. In India, he is considered the father of library science, information science, and documentation. His birthday is observed as National Librarian's Day in his home country.

Legendary 7th-century astronomer Bhāskara I is best known for deciphering Aryabhatta’s work and was the first to use a circle to mean a “zero” in the Indian decimal system. The Mahabhaskariya and the Laghubhaskariya remain two of his best works. He was also an expert in early mathematical astronomy.

Harish-Chandra was an Indian American physicist and mathematician whose contributions to representation theory made him one of the most prominent mathematicians of the 20th century. Over the course of his illustrious career, Harish-Chandra was honored with several prestigious awards, such as the Frank Nelson Cole Prize and Srinivasa Ramanujan Medal. In 1977, he received India's third-highest civilian award, Padma Bhushan.

Augustus De Morgan was a British logician and mathematician. He is best remembered for formulating De Morgan's laws which are widely applied in solving mathematical equations. He also came up with the term mathematical induction, a mathematical proof technique. 

Fifteenth-century Indian astronomer and mathematician Madhava of Sangamagrama is largely remembered as the man who established the Kerala School of mathematics. Of his most notable works are his discovery of the power series and his research on the infinite series. He was known as Golavid, or the Master of Spherics.

Tenth century Indian mathematician, philosopher and Sanskrit scholar Śrīdhara Ācāryya is chiefly known for his two mathematical treaties; Patiganita (the science of arithmetic) and Trisatika (also called Patiganitasara ). In Bījaganita, his treaties on algebra, he provided practical algebraic applications and also a formula for solving quadratic equations.  Other scholarly treaties attributed to him are Navasatī, Bṛhatpati, Ganitasara and Ganitapanchavimashi.

Hemachandra was an Indian Jain mathematician, poet, scholar, and polymath. He played an important role as King Kumarapala's advisor during the latter's reign during which Gujarat became a center of culture. Hemachandra's influence over the king helped establish Jainism as the official religion of Gujarat. He also played a significant role in banning animal slaughter in Gujarat.

S. R. Srinivasa Varadhan is an Indian American mathematician whose contributions to probability theory have earned him several prestigious awards including the National Medal of Science in 2010. He is also renowned for coming up with a unified theory of large deviations. He is currently serving as a professor at the Courant Institute.

Raj Chandra Bose was an Indian-American statistician and mathematician best remembered for his work in finite geometry, design theory, and the theory of error-correcting codes. He is also credited with inventing the notions of association scheme, partial geometry, and strongly regular graph.

Manindra Agrawal is an Indian computer scientist and mathematician whose creation of the AKS primality test earned him the Fulkerson Prize as well as the Gödel Prize. He also won the first Infosys Prize for Mathematics for his contributions in the field of mathematics. He is currently serving as the deputy director at the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.

Mahan Mj is an Indian monk and mathematician who is currently teaching mathematics at the prestigious Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. Renowned for his work in geometric group theory, hyperbolic geometry, complex geometry, and low-dimensional topology, Mahan Mj has received several awards, such as the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award and the 2015 Infosys Prize.

A major figure of the Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics, Nilakantha Somayaji, or Keļallur Comatiri, is best remembered for his contribution to the infinite series. He also penned treatises such as Tantrasamgraha and Aryabhatiya-bhashya and was a polymath, well-versed in most branches of the Indian philosophy.

S. Ramanan is a mathematician whose contributions to the field of algebraic geometry have established him as one of India's most prominent mathematicians. Ramanan is also known for his work in differential geometry and his published work on universal connections has helped B Simons and SS Chern introduce the Chern-Simons invariant, which has played a significant role in theoretical physics.

Ziauddin Ahmad was an Indian mathematician, logician, educationist, scholar, natural philosopher, and politician. He played a prominent role in educating the Muslims at a time when the Muslim community was in dire straits amidst the worsening political situation in the Indian subcontinent. He also played a significant role in developing the Aligarh Muslim University.

J. H. C. Whitehead was a British mathematician credited with co-founding homotopy theory. He also made significant contributions to the field of differential topology. He also contributed immensely during the Second World War, working on operations research for submarine warfare.

Raghunath Dhondo Karve was an Indian social reformer and professor of mathematics. A pioneer in initiating birth control in Mumbai, Raghunath Dhondo Karve began the first Indian birth control clinic in 1921. He played an important role as a reformer, promoting women's empowerment and gender equality in an otherwise patriarchal society.

R. P. Paranjpe was an Indian mathematician and librarian. He became the first Indian to achieve the title of Senior Wrangler, which is regarded as the greatest intellectual achievement attainable in Britain. In 1907, he also became the first librarian of Fergusson College's Indian Mathematical Society (IMS).

Ganesh Prasad was an Indian mathematician who played an influential role in developing the culture of mathematical research in the Indian subcontinent. Several mathematicians consider him the Father of Mathematical Research in India. He also played a significant role in the improvement of primary education in rural India.

Ramchundra was a British-Indian mathematician whose work impressed renowned mathematician Augustus De Morgan, so much so that Morgan promoted Ramchundra's book titled Treatise on Problems of Maxima and Minima in order to bring his work to the notice of the scientific community in Europe.

Eleventh-century Indian mathematician and astronomer Shripati is best remembered for his writings on astral science, such as Dhikotidakarana and Siddhantasekhara. His works covered areas such as algebra, horoscopic astrology, and math, but he gained fame mostly for his astrological works, such as the text Jyotisaratnamala.

Bapudeva Sastri was an Indian scholar renowned for his work in mathematics and Sanskrit. He is credited with translating the Siddhānta Shiromani, a 12th-century treatise written by Bhaskaracharya on mathematics. He was also responsible for publishing the translated version of the treatise in 1891.