A legendary maths wizard dubbed the world's  fastest 'human computer' has died.

Shakuntala Devi died age 83, at a Bangalore hospital following respiratory problems  on Sunday.

Ms Devi was a child prodigy and gained world fame in 1977 when she calculated the 23rd  root of a more than 100 digit number in 50 seconds - 12 seconds faster than the  best  performing computer at that time.

Three years later she multiplied two  randomly-generated 13 digit numbers in 28 seconds. 

She was named in the Guinness Book of World  Record for her outstanding ability.

She had the ability to tell the day of the  week of any given date in the last century in seconds.

Ms Devi came from a humble family -  her father was a circus performer and it  was while she was playing cards with him at the age of three that he discovered  her calculation abilities.

At the age of six, she demonstrated her  skills in her first public performance at University of Mysore and two years  later, she again proved herself successful as a child prodigy at Annamalai  University.

'God's gift. A divine quality,' said Ms Devi  once when she was asked about her ability.

She also said nobody in her family had shown  a head for numbers - she had no formal education.

'Not even remotely, although my father was a  stage magician,' she said.

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