Vishnu Vasudev Narlikar

Personal life

Narlikar was born in Kolhapur, India on 26 September 1908. His father Vasudevshastri Narlikar was a pandit in Sanskrit and delivered pravachans. Vishnu was the youngest among three brothers. He studied at the Vidyapeeth High School and Rajaram College in Kolhapur. Vishnu continued with his education despite his father's demise and secured the fourth rank in the Matriculation exam. He won scholarships and studied at the Elphinstone College and Royal Institute of Science in Mumbai. He stood first in the B.Sc. exam. Vishnu Narlikar became a Star Wrangler after completing the Mathematical Tripos at Cambridge University. He was also a recipient of the Isaac Newton Studentship and the Rayleigh Prize. in 1937.

Vishnu and Sumati had two sons, the astrophysicist Jayant and scientist Anant.

Career He returned to India in 1932 as a professor of Mathematics and Head of the Department of Mathematics at the Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi at the age of 24. Madan Mohan Malaviya, the founder of the Banaras Hindu University, repaid the debt which Narlikar owed to the Kolhapur State, thereby making it possible for Narlikar to work at the university. He became a professor of mathematics at the University of Poona in 1966 and retired in 1973. From 1960 to 1966, he served as the chairman of the Rajasthan Public Service Commission. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1931. He served as the president of the Indian Mathematical Society from 1981 to 1982.

He trained the first generation of general relativists in India. His Ph.D. students include Prahalad Chunnilal Vaidya, Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri, Naresh Dadhich, and Aragam R. Prasanna.