Many of you may find Mathematics confusing, while others love (fall in love meaning and origin) playing with numbers and are interested in solving problems. However, no matter if you like or dislike maths, it plays an important role in our everyday lives. Interesting, India has a rich history in the area of mathematics. Many brilliant Indian mathematicians have made remarkable contributions and gained many recognitions across the globe.
In this article, you will explore the great mathematicians of India and their inventions, achievements, and their pictures, making it easier to get more interested in knowing more about them.
Here is a list of the Great Indian Mathematicians and Their Contributions
1. Srinivasa Ramanujan
Born in 1887, Srinivasa Ramanujan was a splendid Indian mathematician who is credited even today for his contributions in the field of maths. Srinivasa Ramanujan, a mathematician, was an astoundingly brilliant child who might dominate other kids of his age in maths. He belonged to Tamil Nadu, where his family was not well enough to support his passion for Mathematics.
George S. Carr’s book, ‘Synopsis of elementary results in pure mathematics, became his inspiration to follow his passion. Today, Ramanujan, the mathematician, is remembered for inventing important equations, the infinite series of π, and game theory. The year 1914 was the defining moment in the striving life of the virtuoso mathematician. G.H. Hardy, the great mathematician, invited him to Cambridge. In 1916, he was granted his PhD by the institution. Ramanujan died at an early age because of Tuberculosis in 1920. Although the great mathematician Ramanujan died at a young age, he is one of the top 5 Indian mathematicians.
2. Bhaskara I
Bhaskara, the 7th-century famous Indian mathematician, was born in c.600 and died in CE 680. He is one of the ancient Indian mathematicians who is known for his contribution to maths. Bhaskara, a mathematician, is famous for inventing the Hindu decimal system. This Aryabhata follower wrote a critique, ‘Aryabhatiyabhasya’ in CE 629, which is considered the oldest known Sanskrit language work in the mathematics & astronomy field. In addition, his other works include Mahabhaskariya and Laghubhāskarīya.
Mahabhaskariya comprises 8 chapters, dwelling on mathematical astronomy. The book discusses the relationship between cosine and sine and gives the sin x approximation formula. The book likewise examines longitudes of the planets, conjunctions of the planets with one another and with eclipses of the sun & the moon, shining stars, the lunar crescent, risings and settings. Furthermore, the book explains the relationship between the sine of a point >90° >180° or >270° to the sine of a point <90°. Pell Equation ( 8x² + 1 = y² ) is given by Bhaskara I. Brahmagupta and Bhaskara II are the two great mathematicians of Ancient India.
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3. Aryabhatta
476-550 CE, the golden period of India, in which Aryabhatta, the scientist, astronomer and mathematician, lived. Aryabhatta, an Indian mathematician, contributed to the discovery of the spherical shape of the earth, the number of days in 1 year and notable works are Aryabhatasiddhanta and Aryabhatiya. The former work is lost, and the Aryabhatiya has three sections. These sections are:
- Ganita (Mathematics): This section has the names of the first 10 decimal places and provides algorithms for finding cube and square roots through decimals. In this second, he noticed that the second-order sine difference and sine numbers are proportional. Aryabhatta is known for involving one of the two strategies for making the table of sines by utilizing the Pythagorean hypothesis.
- Kala-kriya (Time Calculations): Aryabhata examines cosmology, like planetary movements, meanings of different units of time, and so forth.
- Gola (Sphere): In this section, the mathematician used trigonometry for spherical geometry.
4. Brahmagupta
7th-century Rajasthan astronomer and mathematician, Brahmagupta, is famous for his work Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta.’ The book is related to the use of 0 as a number in calculations. A large portion of his works was in the Sanskrit language. Brahmagupta, mathematician of Ancient India, also known as Bhillamalacarya, is recognized for his contribution to arithmetic, Trigonometry (Sine Table and Interpolation formula), and solutions to general linear equations, Brahmagupta’s Theorem and Brahmagupta’s Formula. Brahmagupta couldn’t finish the utilization of 0 in calculations with respect to division; however, he offered calculations, for example, (1 + 0 = 1; 1 – 0 = 1; and 1 x 0 =0), for utilizing the digit 0. The reason why he is known as the best mathematician in the world is the discovery of negative numbers and their calculations. Further, the establishment of √10 (3.162277) by Brahmagupta gave new dimensions to trigonometry and geometry.
5. P.C. Mahalanobis
In the list of the famous Indian mathematicians, P.C.Mahalanobis is one of them. In 1893, he was born in Kolkata. Mahalanobis completed his graduation from Presidency College in Physics and went to Cambridge for higher education in Physics and Mathematics. He is known as a Mathematician, scientist, statistician, and also the Indian Father of Statistics. In the year 1913, he was one of the people who contributed to the foundation of the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) in India. His contribution to the formation of the Planning Commission of India is unquestionable, and in 1926, he laid the foundation of the Hirakund Dam in Odisha on the Mahanadi River. One of his best-known works is the D2-statistic or Mahalanobis Distance. This distance is the measurement of the proportion of correlation between two distinct data sets.
6. Satyendra Nath Bose
S.N.Bose, famously known for the Bose-Einstein Condensate, is among the top 10 mathematicians of India. Satyendra Nath Bose was an Indian mathematician and physicist who worked with Albert Einstein on the Bose-Einstein Condensate project. Among the Indian mathematicians’ names, Bose is one such who was felicitated with the Padma Vibhushan. Bose is also referred to as the ‘Father of the God Particles’ for his contribution to the Boson particle. The Boson particle is also known as the God particle.
The best mathematician in India, S.N. Bose, was born in Kolkata in 1894 and completed his graduation and post-graduation, majoring in mathematics. From his school days, he outperformed every year till his M.Sc. In 1915, he completed his master’s and decided to pursue higher education in 1917. During this tenure, Bose and his batchmate started translating French and German works of Albert Einstein, after getting the green flag from Einstein. Until 1924, Planck’s Law was not proved, but in this year, Bose published a paper deriving Planck’s Theory: quantum radiation law without referring to any classical physics theories. This publication made him famous among the great mathematicians of the world. Even Einstein was impressed by Bose’s work, and he translated the same into the German language and sent it to the European Physical Journal with Einstein’s recommendation. He died in 1974, but before that, he held several prestigious positions, including president and adviser at the National Institute of Science and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, respectively.
7. D R Kaprekar
In 1905, famous with the name ‘Ganitananda’, a future Indian mathematician was born; he was Dattathreya Ramchandra Kaprekar. In 1927, he won the Wrangler R. P. Paranjpe Mathematical Prize for his notable work in the field of mathematics. After graduating from the University of Mumbai in 1929, he started teaching at the Nashik school. During his period of imparting lessons at a school, Kaprekar persistently published covering various topics like magic squares, recurring decimals and integers having special properties. The number 6174 is called the Kaprekar Constant and is named after him. Kaprekar described numerous classes of natural numbers.
8. Shakuntala Devi
When asked for any female mathematicians of India, Shakuntala Devi is one name that is always on the list of the top 10 Indian mathematicians. A charismatic lady from India is recognized for her exceptional calculating speed. For this reason, she got the title of the ‘human computer.’ She was born in 1929 in Bangalore. Her journey was a bit different from those of other famous Indian mathematicians. Shakuntala Devi, a mathematician, started her journey from memorising cards for the show in the circuses to getting her name into the Guinness Book of World Records.
Her father acknowledged her talent, and later, the entire world shouted out loud for her accomplishments. This Indian mathematician’s biography inspires and elates the motivation of everyone who strives to do wonders as a mathematician.
9. Mahavira
In the list of Indian mathematicians, the 9th-century mathematician, Mahavira, is the one who is known for setting mathematics and astrology apart. He was mainly famous in the Southern region of India, and his work helped many other South Indian mathematicians to refer to. He was the first Indian mathematician in the world to explain the fact that square roots don’t exist in the case of negative numbers. His work ‘Ganitasarasangraha’ includes various mathematical procedures. These vary from basic operations to miscellaneous problems of linear and quadratic equations, mixed problems, proportionality-based rule of 3, geometric calculations and reduction of fractions.
Mahavira, a mathematician, is also known for his contribution to naming the concepts of a semicircle, circle, isosceles triangle, rhombus and equilateral triangle.
10. Narendra Karmarkar
Karmarkar procured his four-year certification in electrical engineering from IIT Bombay and proceeded to seek his PhD in the United States. He is renowned for his contribution to inventing the algorithms of the polynomial. This helped in solving the direct programming queries of linear.
After reading these Indian mathematicians’ names, you will never be able to stay dumbstruck when anyone asks about Indian mathematicians and their contributions. Moreover, you will find all mathematicians’ photos with names, so that in the future the changes to get confused will be a cypher.
11. C.R.Rao
Indian Mathematician, an influencer in many fields like medicine, economics and demography and the legend of statistics is C.R.Rao. Popular for the ‘Theory of Estimation’, Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao was born in Karnataka in the year 1879. His father motivated him in the initial stage of his life, which developed Rao’s interest in mathematics. His father bought ‘Problems for Leelavathi’ for him, which comprises mathematics questions. His daily problem-solving practice later made him a famous Indian mathematician. He won the Chandrasekara Iyer Scholarship and bagged a gold medal in MD in Statistics in 1943 while studying at the Indian Statistical Institute. In 2001, he was felicitated with Padma Vibhushan, and the following year, George W Bush rewarded him with the National Medal of Science.
12. Harish Chandra
Harish Chandra was born in the year 1923 and is known for doing the fundamental work in representation theory. He was an Indian American physicist and mathematician. Among his numerous contributions, semisimple Lie groups’ harmonic analysis is the most well-known. He was honoured with Padma Bhusan (1977), Cole Prize (American Mathematical Society) and Srinivasa Ramanujan Medal (Indian National Science Academy).
13. Ashutosh Mukherjee
Ashutosh Mukherjee is another great mathematician of India who identified the talents of famous mathematicians like S.Radhakrishan and C.V.Raman. His contribution broadened the spectrum of maths in India. His notable contributions and numerous research papers in physics and mathematics made him achieve the zenith position in the list of eminent mathematicians. Ashutosh Mukherjee was a part of various national and international academic societies. In 1908, Ashutosh Mukherjee was the founder of the Calcutta Mathematical Society.
14. Ganesh Prasad
Ganesh Prasad, a famous Indian mathematician, was born in 1876. Ganesh Prasad’s prominent works include ‘Functions of Bessel and Lame’ and ‘A Treatise for Spherical Harmonics’. He had expertise in the hypothesis of functions of a real variable, the theory of potentials, the Fourier series and the hypothesis of surfaces. After completing his M.A. and D.Sc., he moved to Cambridge in 1899 to pursue a higher degree. In 1904, he returned to India and initiated the development of the research culture in India. Hence, he is called the ‘father of mathematical research in India’.
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List of Famous Female Mathematicians of India
Here is the list of Famous female mathematicians of India you should know:
- Raman Parimala
- Neena Gupta
- Shakuntala Devi
- Sujhata Ramdorai
- Mangala Narlikar
- Vanaja Iyengar
- Renuka Ravindra
- Ajit Iqbal Singh
- T. A. Sarasvati Amma
- Bhama Srinivasan
Famous Indian Mathematicians and Their Inventions
Here are some of the great mathematicians of India and their inventions:
| Mathematicians | Renowned Works and Inventions |
| Aryabhata | Formula: (a + b) 2 = a2 + b2 + 2ab |
| Brahmagupta | Introduction of zero (0) |
| Srinivasa Ramanujan | Properties of the Partition Function |
| P.C. Mahalanobis | Mahalanobis Distance |
| C.R. Rao | Theory of Estimation |
| D.R. Kaprekar | Devlali numbers, Kaprekar numbers, the Harshad numbers and Demlo numbers. |
| Harish Chandra | Representation theory, Harmonic analysis on semisimple Lie groups. |
| Satyendra Nath Bose | Collaboration with Albert Einstein, Modern theoretical physics in India. |
| Bhaskara | Declared that any number divided by zero is infinity and that the sum of any number and infinity is also infinity. |
| Narendra Karmarkar | Karmarkar’s algorithm |
List of the Best Mathematicians in the World
Mathematicians from all over the world who have made their contributions in the field of Mathematics are:
- Euclid
- Pythagoras
- Thales of Miletus
- Aristotle
- Diophantus
- Archimedes
- Eratosthenes
- Hipparchus
- Ptolemy
- Hero of Alexandria
- Xenocrates
- Anaxagoras
- Hypatia
- Antiphon
- Diocles
Written by: Himanshu Goyal
Reviewed by: Motion Academic Team
Last Updated: March 2026
FAQs: The Great Indian Mathematicians and Their Contributions
Q. What are the major contributions of Indian Mathematicians?
A. Indian Mathematicians contributed so much to the nation. The concepts such as Zero, the decimal system, algebra, trigonometry, and complex mathematical formulas have helped shape modern mathematics.
Q. Who is recognised as India’s greatest mathematician?
A. Srinivasa Ramanujan is widely regarded as one of the greatest mathematicians of all time (race against time phrase meaning) because of his outstanding contributions to number theory and mathematical analysis.
Q. How did Indian mathematicians influence modern mathematics?
A. Their innovations, including the number system and algebraic methods, are widely employed in contemporary education, science, and technology.
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