Bengaluru: Udupi Rajagopalacharya Ananthamurthy, a colossus of Kannada literature, passed away on Friday evening, at the age of 81. He had been admitted to hospital 10 days ago, battling multi organ failure. Dr. Ananthamurthy, who had been undergoing dialysis regularly for the last four years, suffered critical renal failure and was shifted to the intensive care unit two days ago, but his vital parameters began to drop on Thursday night.
“Despite our best efforts to resuscitate him, we lost a great citizen at 6.33 pm on Friday,” said Dr H.S. Ballal, Director and Chairman of the Medical Advisory Board, Manipal Hospital. A team of 10 doctors had worked tirelessly to revive him , he said. Dr Ananthamurthy is survived by his wife, Esther, and their two children.
Dr. Ananthamurthy is regarded as a pioneer of the Navya Movement in Kannada literature and is best known for his 1965 novel, Samskara. Sixth in the line of Kannada literature’s eight Jnanpith awardees, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1998. A liberal born into a Brahmin family, many of Dr. Ananthamurthy’s pathbreaking novels became torchbearers for the 1970s and 80s Kannada parallel cinema, including Samskara, Ghata Shraddha, Bara and Avasthe.
