TL;DR — what you need to know in 30 seconds
Date: 22 December (every year). Reason: birth anniversary of Srinivasa Ramanujan (b. 22 Dec 1887, Erode, Tamil Nadu). Declared by: PM Dr. Manmohan Singh in 2012 at Ramanujan's 125th anniversary. 2012 was National Mathematical Year. Implemented by: Ministry of Education + NCERT. Key venue: Ramanujan Math Park, Kuppam, Andhra Pradesh.
History & declaration
On 26 February 2012, while presenting the Centenary Celebration of Srinivasa Ramanujan's 125th birth anniversary at Madras University, then Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh declared that 22 December — Ramanujan's birth anniversary — would be observed as National Mathematics Day every year. The Government of India also declared 2012 as the National Mathematical Year.
The first official National Mathematics Day was therefore celebrated on 22 December 2012. Since then, it has been observed every year by schools, colleges, universities and government institutions across India.
Who was Srinivasa Ramanujan?
Srinivasa Ramanujan (22 December 1887 - 26 April 1920) was an Indian mathematician of extraordinary genius. Born in Erode, Tamil Nadu, into a Tamil Brahmin family of modest means, he had no formal training in pure mathematics yet made substantial contributions to:
- Mathematical analysis
- Number theory (including the partition function p(n))
- Infinite series (Ramanujan series for 1/π)
- Continued fractions
- Mock theta functions (his last great discovery)
His correspondence with British mathematician G.H. Hardy at Cambridge in 1913 led to his invitation to Trinity College in 1914. He produced nearly 3,900 results (mostly identities and equations), most of which have been proven correct. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1918 at the age of 30 — one of the youngest ever. He returned to India in 1919 and died at Kumbakonam on 26 April 1920, aged just 32.
"An equation for me has no meaning unless it expresses a thought of God."
— Srinivasa Ramanujan
Famous Ramanujan stories
- The Hardy-Ramanujan number 1729 — known as the "Taxicab number". When Hardy visited Ramanujan in a London hospital and remarked that 1729 was a "rather dull number", Ramanujan immediately responded that 1729 is the smallest number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways: 1³ + 12³ = 9³ + 10³ = 1729.
- Goddess Mahalakshmi of Namakkal — Ramanujan attributed his discoveries to his family deity, claiming the equations appeared to him in dreams.
- The 'Lost Notebook' — discovered by mathematician George Andrews in 1976 at Trinity College, Cambridge, containing 600+ formulas in Ramanujan's last year.
How National Mathematics Day is celebrated
- Schools and colleges across India conduct quizzes, lectures, workshops and competitions on number theory and algebra.
- The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) issues themes and teaching materials.
- The Ramanujan Math Park at Kuppam, Andhra Pradesh (launched 2017) hosts special events.
- The Mathematical Olympiad programmes culminate around this day each year.
- Universities organise special lectures on Ramanujan's contributions and modern mathematics.
- The Royal Society of London also pays special tribute on this day.
National Mathematics Day themes (past)
| Year | Theme |
|---|---|
| 2025 | "Mathematics: The Bridge to Innovation" |
| 2024 | "Mathematics for Everyone" |
| 2023 | "Mathematics for a Better World" |
| 2022 | "Mathematics: Empowering Society" |
| 2021 | "Mathematics: From Genius to Reality" |
The International Day of Mathematics
Note that International Day of Mathematics (also called "Pi Day") is celebrated on 14 March globally, after UNESCO's adoption in November 2019. This is distinct from India's National Mathematics Day on 22 December.
UPSC, SSC and Banking exam relevance
- Direct one-liner factual question — date and reason are high-probability picks for Prelims.
- Year of declaration (2012) + person (Ramanujan) is the standard Q&A pairing.
- Linked to current affairs — every year the theme + a Ramanujan anniversary news item appears.
- Often asked alongside National Science Day (28 February) — useful comparison.