The Man Who Knew Infinity Index May 2026

2. Methodology

A copy of the 1991 first edition (ISBN 0-684-19259-4) was used. The index spans pages 429–438 (10 pages). All 1,142 main entries and subentries were manually coded into five categories: the man who knew infinity index

1. The Protagonist: Srinivasa Ramanujan

Under the primary entry Ramanujan, Srinivasa Iyengar, the index subdivides into the key phases of his life: The Man Who Knew Infinity : A Life

Case Study 2: The Role of Religion in Mathematics

Turn to “Namagiri” in the index. Follow the page numbers. You will see a pattern: religious visions appear most densely during Ramanujan’s productive periods in India (pages 30, 56, 89) and diminish in England, replaced by entries for “sanatorium” and “depression.” This cross-reference allows you to trace Kanigel’s subtle argument about the cost of cultural dislocation. Significance: Represents the struggle

3. Other Significant Papers Mentioned

If you are researching the other papers discussed in the biography, the most important one is likely the collaborative work with G.H. Hardy:

• Significance: Represents the struggle. The heat, poverty, and the stifling bureaucracy of the Port Trust office where Ramanujan worked. It is the "raw" environment from which genius emerged.

• Trace the development of Ramanujan’s notebooks across chapters.
• Compare references to “intuition” vs. “proof” to analyze Kanigel’s thesis about Ramanujan’s methods.
• Locate all mentions of illness to construct a medical timeline.

• Origin: Born December 22, 1887, in Erode, Tamil Nadu, India.
• The Genius: A self-taught mathematician who compiled over 3,900 results (identities and equations).
• The Struggle: Lived in deep poverty; his genius was often misunderstood or ignored by Indian academics during his early years.
• The Belief: A devout Hindu, he famously stated that his mathematical insights were revealed to him by his family goddess, Namagiri Thayar.