Jayant Vishnu NarlikarFNA,FASc,FTWAS (born 19 July 1938) is an Indianastrophysicist andemeritus professor at theInter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA).^[1] He developed withSir Fred Hoyle theconformal gravity theory, known asHoyle–Narlikar theory. It synthesisesAlbert Einstein'stheory of relativity andMach's principle. It proposes that the inertial mass of a particle is a function of the masses of all other particles, multiplied by a coupling constant, which is a function of cosmic epoch.

Jayant Narlikar FNA,FASc,FTWAS
Born	(1938-07-19)19 July 1938 (age 86) Kolhapur,Kolhapur State,British India (nowMaharashtra, India)
Alma mater	BHU Cambridge University
Known for	Quasi-steady state cosmology Hoyle-Narlikar theory of gravity
Spouse	Mangala Narlikar
Children	3
Awards	•Smith's Prize (1962) •Padma Bhushan (1965) •Adams Prize (1967) •Kalinga Prize (1996) •Padma Vibhushan (2004) •Prix Jules Janssen (2004) •Maharashtra Bhushan (2010) •Sahitya Akademi Award (2014)
Scientific career
Fields	Physics, astronomy, writer
Institutions	Cambridge University TIFR IUCAA
Doctoral advisor	Fred Hoyle
Doctoral students	Thanu Padmanabhan

Narlikar was born inKolhapur, India, on 19 July 1938, into a family of scholars. His father,Vishnu Vasudev Narlikar, was a mathematician and theoretical physicist who served as Professor and Head of Department of Mathematics atBanaras Hindu University, Varanasi, and mother, Sumati Narlikar, was a scholar ofSanskrit. His wife was mathematicianMangala Narlikar and they have three daughters.^[2][3] His maternal uncle was the distinguished statisticianV. S. Huzurbazar.^[4]

Narlikar completed his school education from Central Hindu College nowCentral Hindu Boys School. He received hisBSc degree fromBanaras Hindu University in 1957. He then began his studies atCambridge University atFitzwilliam College like his father,^[5] where he received aBA (Tripos) degree in mathematics in 1959 and wasSenior Wrangler.^[6] In 1960, he won theTyson Medal for astronomy. During his doctoral studies at Cambridge, he won theSmith's Prize in 1962. After receiving his PhD degree in 1963 under the guidance ofFred Hoyle, he served as a Berry Ramsey Fellow atKing's College in Cambridge and earned a master's degree in astronomy and astrophysics in 1964. He continued to work as a Fellow at King's College until 1972. In 1966, Fred Hoyle established Institute of Theoretical Astronomy in Cambridge, and Narlikar served as the founding staff member of the institute during 1966–72. In 1972, Narlikar took up Professorship at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) inMumbai, India. At the TIFR, he was in charge of the Theoretical Astrophysics Group. In 1988, the Indian University Grants Commission set up theInter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) in Pune, and Narlikar became the Founder-Director of IUCAA. In 1981, Narlikar became a founding member of theWorld Cultural Council.^[7] Narlikar is known for his work in cosmology, especially in championing models alternative to the popularBig Bang model.^[8] During 1994–1997, he was the President of the Cosmology Commission of theInternational Astronomical Union. His research work has involvedMach's principle,quantum cosmology, andaction-at-a-distance physics. Narlikar was part of a study which cultured microorganisms from stratospheric air samples obtained at 41 km.^[9] He was appointed as the chairperson of The Advisory Group for Textbooks in Science and Mathematics, the textbook development committee responsible for developing textbooks in Science and Mathematics, published byNCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training).

Narlikar has received many national and international awards and honorary doctorates. India's second-highest civilian honour,Padma Vibhushan, was awarded to him in 2004 for his research work.^[10] Prior to this, in 1965, he was conferredPadma Bhushan.^[10] He was awarded 'Rashtra Bhushan' in 1981 byFIE Foundation,Ichalkaranji.^[11] He receivedMaharashtra Bhushan Award for the year 2010.^[12] He is a recipient ofBhatnagar Award, M.P. Birla Award, and thePrix Jules Janssen of theSociété astronomique de France (French Astronomical Society). He is an Associate of theRoyal Astronomical Society of London, and a Fellow of the three Indian National Science Academies and theThird World Academy of Sciences. Apart from his scientific research, Narlikar has been well known as a communicator of science through his books, articles, and radio & television programs. For these efforts, he was honoured in 1996 byUNESCO with theKalinga Prize.^[13] He was featured onCarl Sagan's TV showCosmos: A Personal Voyage in the late 1980s. In 1989, he received theAtmaram Award byCentral Hindi Directorate.^[14] He received the Indira Gandhi Award of theIndian National Science Academy in 1990.^[15] He also served on the Physical Sciences jury for theInfosys Prize in 2009.^[16] In 2014, he received aSahitya Akademi Award for his autobiography in Marathi,Chaar Nagarantale Maze Vishwa.^[17][18] He presided over the 94thAkhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan held atNashik in January 2021.^[19]

Besides scientific papers and books and popular science literature, Narlikar has written science fiction, novels, and short stories in English,Hindi, andMarathi. He is also the consultant for the Science and Mathematics textbooks of NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training, India).

In English:

• Facts and Speculations in Cosmology, withG. Burbridge, Cambridge University Press 2008,ISBN 978-0-521-13424-8
• Current Issues in Cosmology, 2006
• A Different Approach to Cosmology: From a Static Universe through the Big Bang towards Reality, 2005
• Fred Hoyle's Universe, 2003
• Scientific Edge: The Indian Scientist from Vedic to Modern Times, 2003
• An Introduction to Cosmology, 2002
• A Different Approach to Cosmology, withG. Burbridge andFred Hoyle, Cambridge University Press 2000,ISBN 0-521-66223-0,
• Quasars and Active Galactic Nuclei: An Introduction, 1999
• From Black Clouds to Black Holes, 1996
• From Black Clouds to Black Holes (Third Edition), 2012,^[20]
• Seven Wonders of the Cosmos, 1995
• Philosophy of Science: Perspectives from Natural and Social Sciences, 1992
• The extragalactic universe: an alternative view, withFred Hoyle andChandra Wickramasinghe,Nature346:807–812, 30 August 1990
• Highlights in Gravitation and Cosmology, 1989
• The Primeval Universe, 1988
• Violent Phenomena in the Universe, 1982
• The Lighter Side of Gravity, 1982
• Physics-Astronomy Frontier (co-author Sir Fred Hoyle), 1981
• The Structure of the Universe, 1977
• Creation of Matter and Anomalous Redshifts, 2002
• Absorber Theory of Radiation in Expanding Universes, 2002

In Marathi:

• आकाशाशी जडले नाते
• नभात हसरे तारे

In English:

• The Return of Vaman, 1989
• The Adventure
• The Comet

In Marathi:

• वामन परत न आला
• यक्षांची देणगी
• अभयारण्य
• व्हायरस
• प्रेषित
• अंतराळातील भस्मासूर
• टाईम मशीनची किमया
• उजव्या सोंडेचा गणपती

In Hindi:

• पार नज़र के

Narlikar married mathematics researcher and professor,Mangala Narlikar (née Rajwade). The couple have three daughters:Geeta, a biomedical researcher at theUniversity of California, San Francisco, Girija and Leelavati who are in computer science. He is the uncle of the Cambridge University social sciences academicAmrita Narlikar.

• Jayant Narlikar's Home page
• An interview with Jayant Narlikar on virus from outer space (2003)
• An interview with Jayant Narlikar on the origin of Universe (2004, in Spanish)
• Jayant V. Narlikar's Summarized Biography
• Publications of J.V. Narlikar – part 1
• Publications of J.V. Narlikar – part 2
• Cosmology, Facts and Problems (French)
• Narlikar predicted neutrinos traveling faster than light in 1962