U R Ananthamurthy passes away

Bangalore: Udupi Rajagopalacharya Ananthamurthy, known as UR Ananthamurthy, died on Friday. He was 82. Ananthamurthy was one of India’s best known writers and thinkers both within India and abroad. He was a celebrated English professor, acclaimed writer, admired activist and a loved mentor to many.

Born at Melige village in Thirthahalli taluk of Shimoga district in 1932, Ananthamurthy studied at the Mysore University. After obtaining MA in English literature, he taught at colleges in Hassan and Shimoga before he joined the English department of Mysore University. He later headed the same department.

Ananthamurthy did his PHD in English literature on ‘Politics and Fiction in the 1930s’ at the University of Birmingham in England. He wrote his most important novel ‘Samskara’ there. This novel led to a huge controversy back home in Karnataka because it’s scathing attack on Brahmin orthodoxy.

Ananthamurthy became Vice-Chancellor of Mahatma Gandhi University at Kottayam in Kerala in the late 1980s. He was also the chairman, Kendra Sahithya Academy, National Book Trust and the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune.

He was also the Chancellor of Central University at Gulbarga in Karnataka. He served as a visiting professor in many renowned Indian and foreign universities including Jawaharlal Nehru University, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, University of Iowa, Tufts University and Shivaji University.

Ananthamurthy has participated and delivered lectures in numerous seminars as writer and orator both in and outside the country. He was the member of the committee of Indian writers and visited countries like the Soviet Union, Hungary, France and West Germany in 1990. He visited Moscow in 1989 as board member for a Soviet newspaper. Ananthamurthy was the leader for the committee of writers who visited China in 1993.

Ananthamurthy’s works have been translated into several Indian and European languages and have been awarded with important literary prizes. His main works include Samskara, Bhava, Bharathi Pura, and Avasthe. He has written numerous short stories as well. Several of his novels and short fictions have been made into movies.

Most of Ananthamurthy’s literary works deal with psychological aspects of people in different situations, times and circumstances. His writings supposedly analyse aspects ranging from challenges and changes faced by Brahmin families of Karnataka to bureaucrats dealing with politics influencing their work.