The Department of Mathematics has contributed in no small measure to the prestige of this great Institution, named after the great patriot monk of the country Swami Vivekananda, which it enjoys today in the academic world. The growth and achievements of the Department can be broadly viewed in three phases:
1. I Phase: Pre- Silver Jubilee Period (1946-71)
2. II Phase: Silver Jubilee to Golden Jubilee Period (1971-1996)
3. III Phase: Post Golden Jubilee Period (1996-…)
The stress during the Pre-Silver Jubilee period was on teaching and excellence, while during the second phase the stress was on research, in addition to teaching and excellence. In the present phase the stress is on teaching and research, with relevance to today's needs of the computer-age.

I Phase: Pre-Silver Jubilee Period (1946 - 1971)
The college started in 1946 with Mathematics at the Intermediate and B.Sc. Mathematics courses only. Professor T.R. Raghava Sastri who had already twenty four years of teaching experience teaching Mathematics to B.A. Honours students in other colleges lost no time in seeking affiliation for the Honours Course in Mathematics in 1949. In the same year another teacher of repute Professor N. Sundaram Iyer took over as the Principal of the college. This further strengthened the Department that already had illustrious teachers like Sri S. Krishnamurthy Rao, Sri V.K. Panchapakesan and Sri K. Subramanian. Soon the Department became one of the leading Mathematics teaching institutions in the State of Tamil Nadu. The challenge thrown up by the B.A. Honours Course in Mathematics attracted many brilliant students. The Honours Course of the college produced some of the best mathematicians of India today like Professor M.S. Raghunathan, Professor R. Sridharan and Professor S. Ramanan of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai. Professor M.S. Raghunathan who is now the Chairman of the National Board for Higher Mathematics (Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India) is a Fellow of the Royal Society. He was also recently conferred Padmasri by the Government of India.

Due to the growing needs of the Department, Sri P.V. Ranganathan, Sri M. Ranganatha Rao, Sri K.S. Ramachandran and Sri S. Venkataraman augmented the staff strength in the period 1951-54.

The three-year Honours Course was replaced by the new two-year M.Sc. course in 1958. Professor S. Narayanan, another distinguished teacher in mathematics, became the additional professor of mathematics. Compared to the Honours Course, the M.Sc. course suffered because the three-year B.Sc. course was a weak link. The stress on languages continued till the end of the second year to the detriment of proper study of the major subject. In the final year the students virtually rush through the harder portions of the major subject, leaving very little time for assimilating the lessons or for self-study. Nevertheless due to the efforts of the teachers and due to their own individual excellence the bright young students of the M.Sc. classes have been putting forth their best to overcome the odds. Five students of the Department - Sri R. Subramanian, Sri K. Ananathanarayanan, Sri P.S. Raghupathy, Sri R. Narayanan and Sri N.K. Venkatasubramanian in various years secured the first ranks in the Madras University M.Sc. examinations in various years.

Professor S. Narayanan became the Head of the Department in 1962. Under his able leadership the Department witnessed a remarkable growth in several directions. Partly funded by the UGC, a separate Post-graduate block was built during the third plan period. Since then the Mathematics Department is housed in it. The Department has separate rooms for its Department Library and staff. In Professor S. Narayanan's period there were two sections in B.Sc. Mathematics- one section had Physics & Chemistry and the other had Statistics & Numerical Mathematics as ancillary subjects. Prof. V.S. Alagar, Dr. P.R. Vittal, Dr. K.V. Parthasarathy, Sri P. Sivaramakrishna Das, Dr. P.N. Natarajan, Dr. A.K. Rajappa and Sri R. Ramakarthikeyan were appointed as Lecturers during Professor S. Narayanan's period.
The younger members of the staff were encouraged to study modern topics in Higher Mathematics so that they could face the challenges of the changing syllabi. The members attended a number of summer schools and orientation courses and got immensely benefited. The intercollegiate lectures given by Professor S. Narayanan and Professor K. Subramanian in Dynamics, Theory of Waves and Abstract Algebra were very popular and attracted many students from various colleges in and around Madras. To stimulate creative thinking on the part of the students Mathematical bulletins were prepared. Special classes to discuss the bulletins were taken during the luncheon hours by Dr. P.N. Natarajan. A few problems were included at the end of each bulletin to test the understanding of the subject matter dealt with in the handout.

Besides regular curriculum work, members of the Department have been serving the cause of Mathematics education in various ways. Prof. K. Subramanian and Professor K.S. Ramachandran served in the faculty of the summer institute for Secondary School teachers in 1968 and 1969. Professor S. Venkataraman served as instructor in the orientation course for college teachers teaching mathematics through Tamil medium. He was also the editor of the Mathematics Teacher, a journal published by the Association of Mathematics Teachers of India (AMTI) of which Professor K.S. Ramachandran was the Secretary. Professor K. Ramachandran and S. Venkataraman were secretaries of AMTI.

With the help of the Madras Astronomical Association the Department was able to start the College Astronomy Club in May 1969. Sri M. Ranganatha Rao was the Vice President. Very soon the club became popular in the city of Madras. Annual exhibitions were arranged under the joint auspices of the Madras Astronomical Association and the College Astronomy Club. Night sky observations were arranged in the terrace of the Mathematics block through a seven-inch telescope designed by Mr. P. Devadoss, the then President of the Madras Astronomical Association. Sri R. Ramakarthikeyan of the department nourished the club and propagated sky watching on special occasions inviting public and school children and induced interest among them. He took Astronomy Club members on an educational tour to Kavalur and Kodaikanal observatories. On behalf of the Government of Tamil Nadu, he organised and manned the 'Celestial Sphere-Astronomical Aspects' at the Educational Pavilion in the All-India Trade fair at Chennai.

Professor K. Subramanian succeeded Professor S. Narayanan and took over the headship in 1969. He insisted that the younger members should study advanced topics like Topology, Functional Analysis and Abstract Algebra. Under his Headship the Department members had the privilege of going to various places of higher learning to attend summer institutes, workshops and orientation courses, national and international conferences, teacher training programs, Faculty Improvement Programs and the like. Sri P.N. Natarajan, Sri A.K. Rajappa and Sri T.C. Vasudevan were sent for teacher training programmes in 1970-71,71-72 and 73-74 respectively. The management benevolently supported these activities extending all the facilities.

The Department arranged a series of lectures by eminent mathematicians from various institutes. Professor K.R. Parthasarathy of IIT, Chennai, Dr. S. Lakshmi Varahan of IIT, Chennai and Professor B.V. Singbal of TIFR, Mumbai gave courses on Operations Research, Automata Theory and Linear Partial Differential Operators respectively. Sri A.K. Rajappa, Sri P.N. Natarajan and Sri T.C. Vasudevan gave preparatory lectures on Functional Analysis as a prelude to Singbal's lectures.

Under the COSIP programme, Sri S. Venkataraman and Sri K.V. Parthasarathy prepared brochures on Probability Theory; Sri M. Ranganatha Rao and Sri P.N. Natarajan prepared brochures on Measure Theory. With the active cooperation of B.Sc. Mathematics students, a sample survey was conducted on "Education and occupation patterns", under the supervision of Sri M. Ranganatha Rao and Sri S. Venkataraman of the Department of Mathematics. A brief report based on the survey was published. Sri T.C. Vasudevan was deputed to TIFR as a visiting member during 1974-75.

II Phase: From Silver to Gold (1971-1996)
The post Silver Jubilee era of the Department had a tremendous forward thrust by the unstinted encouragement given by the then Head of the Department Professor K. Subramanian. Sri T.C. Vasudevan continued his stay at TIFR as a UGC Teacher Fellow for two years during 1975-77. During 1977-80, under the FIP scheme of the UGC, Sri P.R. Vittal, Sri P.N. Natarajan and Sri K.S. Rajasethupathy were deputed to the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai, Ramanujan Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics, Chennai and TIFR, Mumbai respectively. Sri K.V. Parthasarathy worked as a part time research fellow at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai. All the four successfully completed their work and got their Ph.D. degrees.

Sri K.N. Ranganathan joined the Department in 1975. Sri L. Venkataraman and Dr. K. Parthasarathy were appointed as FIP substitutes in 1977. Sri K.N. Ranganathan and Sri L. Venkataraman became permanent members of the Department when Professor K. Subramanian retired and when Sri A.K. Rajappa left the Institution for higher studies in USA.

In the year 1980, Sri P.V. Ranganathan became the Head of the Department. Under his headship, the Department crossed a landmark by upgrading itself not only as a prominent post-graduate teaching Department but also as a research Department offering facilities to pursue M.Phil. and Ph.D. degree programmes in various topics of specialisation like Number Theory, Analysis, Stochastic Processes, Partial Differential Equations, Fuzzy Algebra, Differential Geometry, Graph Theory, Topology, Functional Analysis and Operations Research. Sri P.V. Ranganathan was the first student to register and work for Ph.D. in mathematics in the Department. He worked as an independent candidate without any guide and took his Ph.D. degree in 1988. His work was on "Some non-linear partial differential equations".

Sri M. Manickam and Sri B. Ramakrishnan worked as CSIR Fellowship (JRF and SRF) under Dr. T.C. Vasudevan in Number Theory and got their Ph.D. degrees in 1989. They are the first batch of full time research students in the Department for the Ph.D. programme. Sri V. Srinivasan, working under the guidance of Dr. P.N. Natarajan, recently submitted his thesis and is awaiting results.
Dr. P.R. Vittal went as a Visiting Professor for six months in 1988 to the University of Western Carolina, USA. Subsequent to Dr. P.V. Ranganathan's retirement, Dr. P.R. Vittal became the Head of the Department of Mathematics in 1989; he later became the Principal of the college in 1995.

Sri P. Sivaramakrishna Das was invited to participate in the First International Conference on Fuzzy Sets and Applications held in USA during 1992, in recognition of his pioneering work on Fuzzy Groups.

Dr. P.N. Natarajan visited the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada as a visiting scientist for a month in May 1993 and he was an invited speaker at the Third International Conference in p-adic Analysis held at Clermont-Ferrand, France in April 1994.

Dr. T.C. Vasudevan was the organizer of Indian side for the International Summer School held at International Centre for Pure and Applied Mathematics, France in the year 1992.

Sri T. Jagatheesan and Dr. M. Manickam joined the Department during this period. Dr. M. Manickam participated in the Cimpa Summer School of Nice, France, 1992 and after the Cimpa Summer School, Dr. T. C. Vasudevan and Dr. Manickam visited the Max-Plank Institute, Bonn, Germany and University of Munster, Germany as visiting professors during 1992.

Sri K.N. Ranganathan was an invited member for the NBHM (National Board for Higher Mathematics) workshop held in the year 1989 at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, to discuss the procedures to be followed in the selection and training of the Indian Team for International Mathematical Olympiads. He was selected as a Core Faculty member and was entrusted the responsibility of preparing study material in Geometry and Algebra for IMO training Camps

Ever since 1989 he is actively engaged in the training and selection of Indian Team for International Mathematical Olympiads. Sri K.N. Ranganathan was one among a team of four authors selected by the National Board for Higher Mathematics, Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India to write a book on Pre-College mathematics which now serves as one of the main books recommended by the NBHM for International Mathematical Olympiad- aspirants. When India hosted International Mathematical Olympiad under the joint auspices of MHRD (Ministry of Human Resources and Development) and NBHM, in Mumbai in 1996, he was given the responsibility of Chief Problem Coordinator in Geometry.

Four teachers of the Department have been given the Best Teacher Award (Dr. S. Radhakrishnan Award) in Mathematics by the Government of Tamil Nadu. The four awardees are: Sri. K.S. Ramachandran, Dr. K.V. Parthasarathy, Dr. P.N. Natarajan and Dr. T.C. Vasudevan.

III Phase: Post Golden Jubilee Period…(1996 onwards)
Dr. K.V. Parthasarathy took over the Headship of the Department from Dr. P.R. Vittal in 1997. Under the leadership of Dr. K.V. Parthasarathy, with constant encouragement from Secretary Swami Satyapriyanandaji Maharaj and with the continual enthusiastic tireless support of the entire Department members, the Department successfully organized two conferences.

The first was on Number Theory in 1998 and it was sponsored by the UGC. Several distinguished Mathematicians of International repute participated and gave talks.

The second was a two-day conference on "Mathematical Career Openings in Teaching & Research, Management and Industry" and it was a part of World Mathematical Year 2000 celebrations. The event was sponsored by National Board for Higher Mathematics, Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India. Bharat Ratna Sri C. Subramaniam delivered the Presidential Address in the Inaugural session of the conference.

The Department of Mathematics has always been contributing in large measures towards Curriculum Development and Syllabus Revision. Several of our members have been members of various Boards of Studies and Curriculum Development committees. Sri Sivaramakrishna Das, as a member of the Undergraduate Board of Studies in Mathematics, University of Madras, fought with perseverance and succeeded in making Computer Programming and Computer Practical as compulsory papers in the B.Sc. Mathematics curriculum.
One of the big achievements in the post Golden Jubilee period is the setting up of a full fledged "Computer Lab" with 32 Pentium machines in the Department of Mathematics. This was possible because of the persistent pains of the members of the Department headed by Dr. K.V. Parthasarathy who took special efforts in appealing to the management and various other organizations. Our Revered Swami Satyapriyanandaji Maharaj, Secretary of the college, who is a firm believer in the use of computers, immediately sanctioned the required funds and made the dream of a Computer Lab a ready reality. The Department offers its respectful and grateful pranams to Revered Swami Satyapriyanandaji Maharaj with prayers for his continued blessings. In this connection all the members of the Department profusely thank the National Board for Higher Mathematics, Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India for its generous grants towards setting up the Computer Lab.

The Department profusely thanks Dr. P.R. Vittal, Former Principal and Head of the Department, for taking classes for I B.Sc. students on an honorary basis during the academic year 2001-2002.

In spite of the heavy teaching work load and several other constraints like, shortage of staff, the members of the Department continue to contribute towards research in higher mathematics. Though not counted for Workload purposes the department conducts an M.Phil. Programme from 1980. Regular Classes are held every day for about 2 hours. In this connection the Department is grateful to Brahmachri Mahan Maharaj of the Ramakrishna order, an esteemed Scholar in Mathematics, for taking classes for M.Phil. students in the Department during the academic years 2000-2001 and 2001-2002. He gave lectures in Differential Geometry for M. Phil. students of the Department. Apart from regular lectures he conducted periodical test and evaluated them. This was very helpful to the students.

Dr. P.N. Natarajan, working on analysis, functional analysis - both classical and p-adic, continues his active research in these areas and has several papers to his credit published in various international and national journals. Dr. P.N. Natarajan was the Academic secretary for the International Conference on p-adic Analysis, Summability Theory, Fuzzy Analysis and Applications held at Chennai during December 1998. He was an invited speaker in the VI International Conference in p-adic Analysis at Ioannina, Greece (July 2000) and VII International Conference in p-adic Analysis at Nijmegen, Netherlands (June 2002).

Dr. T.C. Vasudevan's work on modular forms in Number Theory - a topic, which is now the “latest fashion” among number theorists-, continues to interest people. His work along with his students Dr. M. Manickam (a member of the Department of mathematics) and Dr. B. Ramakrishnan (a member of the Faculty of Mathematics at Harish-Chandra Reasearch Institute, Allahabad) has been quoted as a significant research work in the Institute of Mathematical Sciences Conference (1997) on "Mathematical Research in Independent India".

Dr. M. Manickam visited international centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Tristi, Italy for three months as young visiting mathematician in the year 1997 and he participated for three weeks at the Summer School held there during his visit. Dr. M. Manickam went as a Visiting Professor in the Department of Mathematics, to the University of Toronto during May 2000 and the University of Paris during September 2001. Dr. M. Manickam presented a paper in the international conference at Luminy, France during September 2001.

Dr. T.C. Vasudevan, Dr. M. Manickam and Dr. P.N. Natarajan attended the International Conference in Number Theory at Harish-Chandra Research Institute, Allahabad in November 2000 where Dr. T.C. Vasudevan and Dr. M. Manickam were invited speakers. Dr. T.C. Vasudevan has been selected as a Research Associate at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai for three years from 2001.

The Department members take very active part in the academic activities of the mathematical community. Our members are associated with the Association of Mathematics Teachers of India in various capacities as Secretary for Talent Examinations (Dr. P.N. Natarajan), executive committee members (Dr. P.N. Natarajan, Dr. T.C. Vasudevan, Sri K.N. Ranganathan), and paper setters and examiners of talent competitions at All India level (Dr. P.N. Natarajan, Dr. T.C. Vasudevan, Sri K.N. Ranganathan, Sri L. Venkataraman, Sri K. Kumaraswamy, Dr. V. Selvan).
The present Head of the Department Sri P. Sivaramakrishna Das is the Chairman, Under-graduate Board of Studies in Mathematics, University of Madras and ex-officio member of the PG Board. Sri P. Sivaramakrishna Das and Sri L. Venkataraman have participated in the seminar on "Mathematics and Statistics Education in the next decade at the under-graduate level" which drafted a model syllabus for mathematics and statistics to be followed in all universities in Tamil Nadu. Sri L. Venkataraman was a member of the Committee constituted by TANSCHE to finalize the seminar reports. The Department is seriously concerned with the curriculum development activities and is constantly trying to upgrade the syllabus to suit the present day demands and expectations while at the same time trying to safeguard the foundational aspects of basic mathematics.

An NBHM research project " A Study of Jacobi Forms of Higher Degree" to the tune of about rupees four lakhs was granted to Dr. M. Manickam as the principal Investigator. Dr. B. Ramakrishnan (HRI, Allahabad) was the co-investigator and Sri B. Hariharan was a junior research fellow in the project. The duration of the project was for three years (April 1998 to March, 2001).

Sri K.N. Ranganathan is now the NBHM Regional Coordinator for Mathematical Olympiad for Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry appointed by National Board for Higher Mathematics, Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India. Sri K.N. Ranganathan was selected twice by the National Board for Higher Mathematics (DAE, Government of India) to represent India as the Deputy Leader of the Indian Team in the
1. 40th International Mathematical Olympiad, IMO 1999 in Bucharest, Romania.
2. 41st International Mathematical Olympiad, IMO 2001 in Washington, USA.

In the present day scenario, mathematics and other fundamental sciences do not attract good students. As a result, the results in the University examinations are far from satisfactory. Under the headship of Sri P. Sivaramakrishna Das, the Department has taken various measures to enhance the understanding of basic mathematical concepts and to improve the results. We get students who are economically very poor and most of whom are 'first generation learners'. In order to help them the Department is now conducting weekly cycle tests and revision examinations. Some remedial classes are also held for slow learners. Sri L. Venkataraman has been taking remedial coaching classes for weak students of I B.Sc. Mathematics students in the Department outside the College hours. A tutorial system is being revived in the Department. Each member of the staff is assigned a set of about twenty students and he is to monitor the attendance and progress of those twenty students. Also the students are encouraged to meet their respective tutors regularly and get their problems- both academic and non-academic-solved. The scheme has started paying dividends and we hope to do better in future.
In addition to these steps taken to help the weak students, the Department has started another programme, to identify and motivate the talented students, namely, "Problem of the week" programme. Every week a non-routine problem is posed on the notice board of the Mathematics Department and solutions are invited from the students. All the solutions are evaluated and the best solution by the students is displayed the next week. At the end of the Academic Year, the staff members of the Department award the student who has solved the most number of problems a prize.
For the benefit of students having arrears, the Department gives a collection of questions for each paper and a model examination is conducted by the Department before the October Arrears Examinations, conducted by the University of Madras.
Sri L. Venkataraman, apart from his academic activities, takes up major responsibilities of the college like coordinating the admission work of the centralized Admission Committee. At present he is the Coordinator for the NAAC Coordination Committee to prepare the self-study report.
During this period, the following members joined the faculty of mathematics:
Sri K.Kumaraswamy, Sri S.Manimaran and Dr. V.Selvan. Dr. V.Selvan participated and delivered lectures in the Instructional Conference on 'Quantum Groups' conducted by Ramanujan Institute, University of Madras held from 1/3/2001 to 21/3/2001. Two of the Department members Sri T. Jagadeesan and Sri K. Kumaraswamy registered in the University of Madras for their Ph.D. under the guidance of Dr. M. Manickam as part time research candidates. Thanks to the Principal and the Secretary for providing separate room in the college to do the NBHM Project and Research activities, the Department continues to march ahead.
Following is a list of staff members of the Department who wrote Books in Mathematics:
1. Professor T.R. Raghava Sastri
2. Professor S. Narayanan
3. Professor K. Subramanian
4. Sri K.S. Ramachandran
5. Sri S. Venkataraman
6. Sri L.V. Subramanian
7. Dr. P.R. Vittal
8. Sri P. Sivaramakrishna Das
9. Sri K.N. Ranganathan
Academic visits abroad by the faculty members of the Department:
Name Countries visited
1. Sri S. Venkataraman USA
2. Dr. P.R. Vittal USA, Canada
3. Sri P.Sivaramakrishna Das USA
4. Dr. P.N. Natarajan Canada, France, Greece, The Netherlands
5. Sri A.K. Rajappa USA
6. Sri R. Ramakarthikeyan USA, China
7. Dr. T.C. Vasudevan France, Germany
8. Sri K.N. Ranganathan Italy, France, UK, Austria, USA, Hong Kong, Japan, Romania, Oman.
9. Dr. M. Manickam Italy, France, Germany, Canada, Singapore.