Shakuntala Devi: the girl from Bangalore who made numbers fun

A gift noticed over a pack of cards

Shakuntala Devi was born on 4 November 1929 in Bangalore, now Bengaluru. Her father worked in a circus as a trapeze artist and tightrope performer. While he was showing her card tricks, he noticed that his small daughter had an unusual memory for numbers. Her daughter later said that by the age of three, Shakuntala was already fond of numbers and had a remarkable memory.

School was not easy to afford. She was admitted to Class 1 at St Theresa's Convent in Chamarajpet at the age of ten, but she had to leave after about three months because her parents could not pay the monthly fee. She had almost no formal education after that.

“I had become the sole breadwinner of my family, and the responsibility was a huge one for a young child”

— Shakuntala Devi, via NBC News (from LiveScience)

Performing from the age of six

Her father saw her talent and took her to perform in circuses and road shows. At the age of six she showed her calculating skills at the University of Mysore. Two years later she performed number games at Annamalai University in Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu.

These shows were not just for fun. While still a child she became the main earner for her family, a responsibility she later described as a huge one for someone so young. In 1944, at the age of 15, she moved to London with her father. Over the following decades she travelled widely and appeared on radio, on television and in theatres in many countries.

The 'human computer' and her world record

In 1977, at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, USA, she was asked to find the 23rd root of a 201-digit number. She gave the answer in 50 seconds. A Univac computer took 62 seconds to do the same calculation.

Her best-known feat came on 18 June 1980 at Imperial College London. Guinness World Records lists her as the holder of the record for the fastest human computation. According to Guinness, she correctly multiplied two randomly selected 13-digit numbers, provided by the college's Computer Department, in 28 seconds.

In 1988, during a visit to the USA, the educational psychologist Arthur Jensen of the University of California, Berkeley, tested her arithmetic. He reported that she solved most of the problems faster than he could copy them down.

The official Guinness certificate for her 1980 record reached her family only in 2020. Her daughter, Anupama Banerji, received it on her behalf, shortly before a film about her life was released.

Writer, astrologer and teacher of numbers

Shakuntala Devi did not keep her love of numbers to herself. She wrote many books, including puzzle and number books such as Puzzles to Puzzle You and Fun with Numbers. She also wrote novels and cookbooks, and from the early 1980s she worked as an astrologer in Bangalore.

She set up an educational public trust to promote the study of mathematics, as well as astrology, philosophy and astronomy. She kept travelling for shows and talks until late in life. In March 2013 she received a Lifetime Achievement Award in Mumbai. She died in Bangalore on 21 April 2013, at the age of 83.

The skills and habits that made the difference

Nobody can copy a rare natural gift, and the sources do not describe a fixed daily study routine for her. But some things about how she worked are well recorded.

Numbers were part of play. Her talent showed up first in card games and tricks with her father, not in a classroom. Throughout her life she treated numbers as something to enjoy and share, and her puzzle books invite readers to test their own thinking.

She practised in public, again and again. From the age of six she performed in front of audiences, often under time pressure and with problems set by others. Arthur Jensen, who tested her, wrote that for a calculating prodigy like her, working with numbers seemed almost like a native language. That kind of comfort comes from using numbers constantly.

She learned outside school. With very little formal education, she built her knowledge herself and went on to write books and set up a trust for others to study maths.