Internationally acclaimed astrophysicist Professor Jayant Vishnu Narlikar has passed away at the age of 87 in Pune, India. Born on July 19, 1938, in Kolhapur, Maharashtra, Prof. Narlikar was a distinguished alumnus of Banaras Hindu University (BHU), where he completed his B.Sc. in 1957. He hailed from a scholarly family—his father, Vishnu Vasudeva Narlikar, was the Head of the Mathematics Department at BHU, while his mother, Sumati Narlikar, was a respected Sanskrit scholar.
Prof. Narlikar pursued higher studies at Cambridge University, where his academic brilliance was widely recognised. He won the prestigious Tyson Medal in the Mathematical Tripos and went on to earn multiple degrees: a BA in 1960, a PhD in 1963, an MA in 1964, and a ScD in 1976, with a focus on astronomy and astrophysics. His achievements were further honoured with the Smith’s Prize (1962) and the Adams Prize (1967).
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoled his passing, calling it a monumental loss for the scientific community.
He served as a Fellow at King’s College, Cambridge (1963–1972) and was a founding member of the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy (1966–1972). During this period, in 1966, he married Mangala Rajwade, a mathematician with a PhD. Prof. Narlikar is survived by their three daughters—Geeta, Girija, and Leelavati—all of whom have pursued careers in science.
In 1972, Prof. Narlikar returned to India and joined the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), where he led the Theoretical Astrophysics Group. In 1988, he was appointed by the University Grants Commission to establish the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) in Pune, serving as its founding director until his retirement in 2003. He remained associated with IUCAA as an emeritus professor.
Prof. Narlikar was globally respected for his groundbreaking work in cosmology. He proposed alternative theories to the Big Bang, exploring concepts such as Mach’s Principle, action-at-a-distance physics, quantum cosmology, and the theory of gravity. He served as President of the Cosmology Commission of the International Astronomical Union from 1994 to 1997.
He collaborated with Fred Hoyle on stellar nucleosynthesis which explains how the elements in the universe—like carbon, oxygen, and iron—are created inside stars from lighter elements like hydrogen and helium. He was also a proponent of the panspermia hypothesis, which suggests that life on Earth may have originated in space. Along with scientists like Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe, Narlikar explored the possibility of life being transported via meteorites or interstellar dust. Between 1999 and 2003, he led a pioneering experiment that collected microorganisms from altitudes up to 41 km, suggesting a potential extraterrestrial origin of some microbial life.
Beyond research, Prof. Narlikar was a passionate science communicator. He authored numerous books and articles, and produced science programmes across English, Marathi, and Hindi media. For his efforts in popularising science, he was awarded the UNESCO Kalinga Prize in 1996.
Prof. Narlikar was honoured with the Padma Bhushan in 1965—at just 26 years of age—and the Padma Vibhushan in 2004 for his extraordinary contributions to science.
His legacy lives on in the generations of scientists he inspired, the institutions he helped build, and the cosmic questions he fearlessly explored.
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