Shakuntala Devi

Shakuntala Devi was born on 4 November 1929 in Bangalore, then part of the Kingdom of Mysore in British India. She came from a family connected with circus performance. Her father recognized her unusual ability with numbers when she was a young child and began presenting her mathematical skills at public shows. At the age of six, she demonstrated her arithmetic abilities at the University of Mysore. She did not receive a conventional formal education.

As she grew older, Devi became an internationally known mental calculator. She traveled widely, appearing at universities, public events, and television programs and demonstrating her ability to perform complex calculations without mechanical calculators. Her unusual speed and accuracy earned her the popular nickname “Human Computer.”

One of her most famous achievements took place at Imperial College London on 18 June 1980. She mentally multiplied two randomly selected 13-digit numbers and produced the correct 26-digit result in 28 seconds. Guinness World Records recognizes this as the record for the fastest human computation.

Devi's abilities were not limited to public demonstrations. She also wanted to make mathematics more accessible and enjoyable. She wrote several books explaining numbers and mathematical ideas through accessible language and puzzles. Among her well-known books are Figuring: The Joy of Numbers, Puzzles to Puzzle You, More Puzzles to Puzzle You, Book of Numbers, and In the Wonderland of Numbers. She also wrote about astrology, memory, cooking, and fiction.

Shakuntala Devi was also a writer on a subject far removed from mental mathematics. In 1977, she published The World of Homosexuals, a book based partly on interviews and discussion of the social and legal circumstances surrounding homosexuality in India and abroad. Contemporary bibliographic records describe it as an investigation of homosexuality that called for more humane and rational consideration of the subject.

Her personal life also attracted public attention. She married Paritosh Banerji, an Indian Administrative Service officer from Kolkata, and they had a daughter, Anupama Banerji. The marriage ended in divorce in 1979. Accounts of the marriage and its connection to Devi's later interest in homosexuality differ in their interpretation, so those claims are best treated cautiously.

Beyond mathematics, Devi became known for encouraging people to approach numbers with curiosity rather than fear. Her books and public appearances helped popularize mental arithmetic and mathematical puzzles among general readers. She also wrote works on astrology and other subjects, demonstrating the breadth of her interests.

Shakuntala Devi died in Bangalore on 21 April 2013, aged 83. She remains widely remembered for her extraordinary mental calculation abilities, her popular mathematics books, and her unconventional range of interests as a writer.