Was Shakuntala Devi an actual mathematician? Or was she just good at mental calculations?

It would be unfair to diminish the extraordinary feats of calculation that Shakuntala Devi was famous for.

She mentally solved the 23rd root of a 201 digit number without any help from mechanical aid and in 1980, she solved the multiplication of 13 digit number 7,686,369,774,870 and 2,465,099,745,779

But she did not develop new branches in the theory of mathematics; so we say she was a calculator extraordinaire but not really a mathematician.

Shakuntala Devi (4 November 1929 – 21 April 2013) was an Indian writer and mental calculator,

popularly known as the "human computer".

Her talent earned her a place in the 1982 edition of The Guinness Book of World Records.