In 1903, Ramanujan's talent earned him a scholarship to the University of Madras, but he lost it the following year because he concentrated solely on mathematics and neglected his other courses. However, he continued his work in mathematics outside of the university, even while enduring poverty for several years. Eventually, he became a clerk at the Madras Port Trust.

In 1911, Ramanujan published his first paper in the Journal of the Indian Mathematical Society. In 1913, he became associated with Godfrey H. Hardy, a British mathematician. This led to a scholarship from the University of Madras and from Trinity College in Cambridge. In 1914, he traveled to England. Hardy tutored Ramanujan in mathematics and also collaborated with him on research. During his stay in London, his health became a major issue and he did not pubslish anything for five months. Of the work he did get to publish, they appeared in European and British journals. By 1918, he was elected a fellow of the Cambridge Philosophical Society. Shortly thereafter, he was considered for a fellowship in the Royal Society of London. Three months later, Ramanujan became the first Indian to join the Royal Society.

Ramanujan worked in the field of continued fractions, which he skillfully mastered. He also did extensive work on hypergeomteric series, independently discovering the results of Carl Frederich Gauss and Ernst Eduard Kummer. Ramanujan derived the elliptical integrals, the Riemann Series, functional equations of the zeta function and his own theory of divergent series.