Departures of note

Born Bhupathiraju Lakshminarasimha Raju in 1896 in Goraganamudi, Andhra Pradesh, Swami Jnanananda was drawn early to spiritual life. Inspired by Edwin Arnold's The Light of Asia, he renounced worldly pleasures after his 1916 marriage and spent about ten years traveling to pilgrim centers, including Lumbini in Nepal, before settling in the Himalayas to practice yoga and study Vedic literature.

His quest for knowledge then turned to science. In 1927, he went to Germany to deliver religious discourses and print his works, where his lectures caught the attention of Professor Dember at Dresden University. Fascinated by Einstein's theory of relativity, he completed an undergraduate course in physics and mathematics in just two years, while also delivering over 150 lectures on yoga and publishing his major work, 'Purna Sutras'.

He pursued research at Charles University in Prague, developing precise methods in X-ray spectroscopy and earning a D.Sc. in 1936. During World War II, he worked under Sir James Chadwick at the University of Liverpool on nuclear physics and beta radiation spectroscopy, earning a Ph.D. He continued his research in the United States at Michigan University, where he also completed his book on high vacuum.

Returning to India in 1947, he joined the National Physical Laboratory in Delhi. After an accident in 1954, he was invited by Andhra University's Vice-Chancellor to develop nuclear physics facilities. He became the head of the new Nuclear Physics Department in 1956 and served until 1965. The university later named its laboratory the 'Swami Jnanananda Laboratories of Nuclear Research' and erected a statue in his honor.