Who Was Shakuntala Devi?
Shakuntala Devi was born on November 4, 1929, in Bangalore, India. Her father worked for a circus as a magician, lion tamer, and trapeze artist. As a child, Devi traveled with the circus as her father performed.
When Devi was three, her father discovered she had a special talent. When they played cards together, she always won. Devi did so by memorizing all of the cards and the order in which they were dealt. This was an exceptional ability to display at such a young age.
That’s why many people called Devi a child prodigy. Unfortunately, Devi had to leave school at the age of six. Still, she continued to study math concepts on her own. She soon began to earn money by demonstrating her talents at various colleges and universities.
Devi showed a strong understanding of multiplication. She was able to find the product of numbers that were 13 digits long! She could also find the cube roots of large numbers in mere seconds. Devi once even found the 7th root of a 27-digit number in just 40 seconds.
Devi had another unique skill related to her understanding of numbers. She could identify the day of the week on which any date in history fell. Even more impressive, she could do so within one second of hearing the date. This and her other talents were verified in 1988 by a test at the University of California, Berkeley.
Who Was Shakuntala Devi?
How was Devi so good at math? Historians believe she taught herself by reading books about mathematical concepts. And, of course, she practiced. Her career as a performer meant that Devi was constantly exercising her brain and getting better with numbers.
Shakuntala Devi was a lifelong learner, and she was interested in many subjects. In addition to math, Devi wrote books about cooking and astrology. She was also an ally to LGBTQIA+ folks. She was the first person in India to write a book about same-gender relationships.
On April 21, 2013, Devi died from cardiac and respiratory issues. Today, she’s still remembered for her amazing talents. In fact, she still holds the Guinness World record for the fastest human computation. A movie about her life was released in 2020.
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