Archive · 13 Aug 2026
How DD Kosambi envisioned higher science education in India
This story is about a very smart mathematician named Damodar Kosambi.
In 1945, the famous scientist Homi Bhabha started a new research institute in India called TIFR.
Bhabha wanted India to have world-class science, just like England and America.
He hired Kosambi to build up the mathematics side of the institute.
Kosambi was unusual because he studied in America, had no PhD, and loved many subjects, including old coins and ancient languages.
He helped run the institute and even acted as the boss when Bhabha travelled abroad.
Kosambi also helped build an early kind of computer called the Kosmagraph.
In 1947, India's leader Jawaharlal Nehru gave a speech telling scientists to use science to help people and keep peace.
Kosambi agreed and wanted science to solve real problems in society.
Kosambi helped build an institute that would play a major role in India's future.
DD Kosambi was appointed Professor of Mathematics at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in June 1945, the institute's second appointment after Homi Bhabha.
An academic maverick educated in the United States and without a PhD, Kosambi's interests ranged from mathematics to Indology, Sanskrit, and numismatics.
Serving as Acting Director while Bhabha was abroad, Kosambi helped plan TIFR's permanent campus at Colaba and recruit mathematicians for a School of Mathematics.
In January 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru told the 34th Indian Science Congress in Delhi that science must serve the community, peace, and social progress rather than war.
Under a 1945 JRD Tata Trust grant, Kosambi built the 'Kosmagraph', a primitive electronic computing machine that cost Rs 300, among six research projects.
- Who
- DD Kosambi (Professor of Mathematics), Homi Bhabha (TIFR Director), and Jawaharlal Nehru.
- What
- The founding and early growth of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, including Kosambi's role in building its School of Mathematics and Nehru's call for science to serve the community.
- When
- From June 1945, when Kosambi joined TIFR, to January 1947, when Nehru addressed the Indian Science Congress.
- Where
- Initially within the Indian Institute of Science campus in Bangalore, later in Bombay (Kenilworth, with a new campus planned at Colaba); the Science Congress was held in Delhi.
- Why
- Bhabha sought to create a top-class physics research facility in India and recruited Kosambi to help establish a School of Mathematics; Nehru urged scientists to apply science for peace and the public good.
- Appointment
- Professor of Mathematics at TIFR, June 1945
- Kosambi's age at appointment
- 38 years
- TIFR Director
- Homi Bhabha, appointed May 1945
- TIFR inauguration
- December 1945
- Initial location
- IISc campus, Bangalore; later Kenilworth, Bombay
- Research grant
- Rs 1800 from JRD Tata Trust, May 1945
- Kosmagraph cost
- Rs 300
- Nehru's address
- "Science in the Service of the Community," 34th Indian Science Congress, Delhi, January 1947