C.V.

Raman:
Date of birth: 1888
Date of death: 1970

C.V. Raman

SIR PROFESSOR CHANDRASHEKHARA VENKATA RAMAN WAS popularly known as

Professor C.V.Raman.He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1930 for his outstanding
discovery of the scattering of light.All his life Raman worked for the cause of scientific
development in India.
Raman was an exceptionally brilliant boy right from his childhood.He passed all school
and college examinations with flying colors and completed his Masters degree when he
was 17-year old.Raman was awarded a gold medal for securing the highest marks in
the Masters degree in 1907.
Raman wanted to take the Indian Civil Services(ICS) exams but in those days ICS
examinations were not conducted in India,all of the candidates had to go to England to
sit for the examination.Raman too wanted to attend the ICS examination,but his poor
financial circumstances did not allow him to do so.Raman decided to attend Financial
Civil Service(FCS) instead.
Raman secured high marks and got through the interview.He was then posted to
Calcutta as an Assistant Accountant-General where he remained for ten years.During
this period Raman was also active in scientific research and experiments.He published

more than 30 well-researched papers in several prestigious science journals when he

was in the government service.
A turning point came in Ramans life when he was offered Palit Chair for Physics by Sir
Asutosh Mookerjee,the Vice-Chancellor of the Calcutta University.Raman accepted the
offer and joined the Calcutta University,and Ramans ten years of government service
ended in this way.Raman was a dedicated scientist,all his life Raman worked for the
scientific development of India.It was Raman who truly laid down the foundations of
modern science in India.In the latter half of his life Raman was elected a fellow of the
Royal Society,London.The Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to Raman in 1930,and he
was also knighted by the British Government in India in 1929 at the age of 41.
Raman is remembered for his major contributions in the field of vibration and
sound,musical instruments,ultrasonic,diffraction,metrological and colloid optics photoelectricity,x-ray diffraction,magnetism,dielectrics and the Raman Effect.
CHANDRASEKHARA VENKATA RAMAN,popularly known as C.V Raman,was born at
Trichinopoly,Tamil Nadu,India,on November 7,1888.He was the second son of
R.Chandrasekhara Iyer and Parvathi Ammal. R.Chandrasekhara Iyer was a professor of
mathematics at A.V.N College,Andhra Pradesh.Parbati,the wife of R.C Iyer,was a devout
lady who spent most of her time in prayer.
Raman was a brilliant student throughout his educational career;he matriculated at
12,graduated at 15,and recieved masters degree at 17.Raman studied very hard for
the final year exam of B.A. When the result of the B.A examination was
published,Raman came first in the whole state of Madras.Similarly Raman secured first
position in the M.A.examination and was awarded with the gold madal.
When C.V Raman was studying for an M.A.,he wrote two articles,one on acoustics and
the other on light.These articles were published in two of Londons scientific
magazines ,these articles were excellent,and senior scientists of England praised
Ramans brilliant theories on the study of light.
As Raman did not come from a rich family,he had to find a suitable job.He finally
decided to sit theIndian Financial Serviceexamination.He got through the examination
and was selected as an Assistant Accountant General,a high ranking post,at the young
age of 19.He was posted to Calcutta.
Raman found the post of an Assitant Accountant General was quite exciting but more
challenging.Being a high level officer his responsibility was very serious he had to be

busy most of the day and would get very little time for his studies and experiments.As a
consequence he began to study late into the night.Many Indian and British friends of
Raman were surprised when C.V.Raman published one after another many wellresearched papers in many reputable science journals.These erudite papers of
C.V.Raman duly attracted the attention of major scientists both in India and abroad.He
remained in the Government job for ten years,but during this period he managed to
publish more than 30 research papers,this was by no means a small number.

C.V. Raman

During his stay in Calcutta Raman became a permanent members of a science

organization which he visited quite regularly.While visiting this organization he
happened to meet with the Vice-Chancellor there.Raman wished to join a University to
teach science and mathematics.Sir Asutosh Mookerji,the vice-chancellor of the calcutta
University.Now Raman had to make a serious decision by choosing one job and leaving
the other,and he decided to leave government job which brought him a handsome
salary and several other benefits.
Raman,as an accountant general,had a very large salary,a bungalow,a motor car and a
large staff of servants.He was getting nearly all the facilities that an English officer was
getting at the time.But Raman was more interested

in science than occupying a high

post in the government .

If Raman had had such a strong attraction to his post as Accountant General possibly
he would have eventually retired and been known as one of the most hard-working and
diligent officials,but India would have lost one of her most able scientists and of

course,the Nobel Prize as well.But Raman sacrificed his lucrative job and preferred to
get involved in the service of scientific research which was his major passion.
When Raman was in Calcutta University he devoted a great deal of time to the Indian
Association for the cultivation of Science.He would work for ages in the laboratory.He
was also publishing research papers quite frequently.In fact Raman who had rejected
drawing a handsome salary in the Government job was satisfied and contested as a
professor of science teacher was continously spreading far and wide.
Raman was invited to attend a science conference to be held in England in 1921 at the
age of 33 the boarded a ship and headed for England.As the ship was making its way
Raman was standing on deck looking at the waves in the sea.Suddenly his eyes focused
on at the color of the sea water which was startlingly blue!
After he returned from England Raman started an extensive research into solving the
mystery of why the seawater is blue.After a few months of hard work,he discovered the
secret and wrote a paper in which he described the reason why seawater is seen as
blue.
As we know water is a transparent liquid.Professor Raman said that when sunlight falls
into the seawater a beam of sunlight passes through the tiny particles of the water and
the result is that we see the water as blue.In brief it can also be said that because of
scattering of light this causes the water to acquire a blue color.
Many scientists read Ramans paper and they praised him enormously,but it was only a
humble beginning.In later years he carried out more experiments and research to know
more about the properties of the scattering effect of light.
On his return to Calcutta University Raman became very busy experimenting on the
scattering of light.He passed light through water,dense liquid,solids,and thus he
discovered that when light enters into such things the spectrum shows new lines of
colour,and the number of new lines is different for different substances.This was a
marvelous discovery and paved the way for many other scientist to discovery such
things as colour photographs,plastics,and synthetic rubber,etc.

Professor Raman was invited to take a prestigious position of Taraknath Palit

Professorship of Physics at calcutta University in 1917 at the fairly young age of
39.Prof.Raman was engaged in very hard work in the University laboratory,during this
period he was working on Optics and the scattering of light and made significant
progress.In 1924 he was elected to because a member of the Royal Society of London
and in 1929 the British government khighted Prof.Raman for his longstanding service to
enrich science.Similarly,in 1930 the Royal Society of London honored Raman with the
Hughes Medal .He was appointed as director of the Indian Institute of science in
Bangalore.

Raman with students

Professor Raman discovered the Raman Effect on 28th February 1928.In 1930 the
Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded to Raman for his discovery of the Scattering of
light molecular science.He also traveled to Canada to give a lecture on the molecular
and scattering of light at the British Association for the Advancement of Science.Raman
also attended the International Congress of Mathematics where he gave a series of
lectures.He also travel to many reputable universities in America and gave lectures on
various topics.Wherever he visited he was greeted with warm welcomes and great
respect.
The Nobel Prize of Science made Professor Raman a popular figure.He was determined
to upgrade the status of Indian science and technology to an international
standard.Raman had a dream of establishing a big institute where varous scientist could
get the maximum facilities for research and experimentation.The Indian Academy of
science(IAS) was established in 1948.Later this institutes name was changed to the
Raman Research Institute.

Professor Raman used his own money to buy expensive equipment for the institute.But
due to a lack of funds many research works could not be performed in the institute.To
meet the growing expenses of the institute,Professor Raman declared that he would
donate all his property to the institute to ease the running costs and help the institute
when it was passing through a difficult time.
Ramans contribution to consolidate the foundation of Indian science and technology
was indispensable and an awesome feat on his part which will never be forgotten.
Although Raman had a tough working schedule ,he would always get up early in the
morning and go for a long walk.He could always be found saying that a sound brain is
only found in a healthy body.
Also Raman was a voracious reader.Whenever he could get any free time he would keep
himself busy reading books.He greatly enjoyed contemporary literature.He had also
published a total of 475 papers and several miscellaneous articles during his life time.
The Raman,despite old age,would do quite hard work but,due to his age and the heavy
workload,he became exhausted and finally his health seriously declined.His wife
objected many times to the way he worked late into the night in the laboratory,but
Raman hardly paid attention to his wifes good advice.
One night,when Raman was reading a book,he suddenly had a strong heart attack and
collapsed on November 21,1970,died at the age of 82.But he left behind The Raman
Effect as his most precious gift to mankind.Professor Raman was given the most
prestigious award of India the Bharat Ratna(jewel of India).