Globally renowned Kannada writer and Jnanpith-winner and UR Ananthamurthy succumbed to complications following renal failure at a Bangalore hospital late in the afternoon on Friday. The 82-year-old was critical and undergoing treatment on a multi-support system for over ten days according to hospital authorities.
Despite his kidney ailment which necessitated regular dialysis, an active Murthy was not only travelled extensively but kept taking up new projects. Over the last fortnight his condition had worsened.
"There cannot be sufficient words to express the profound sense of sorrow one feels about the loss of one of our brightest litterateurs and thinkers," said an anguished Amol Palekar who felt "privileged and honoured to have known him and spent a considerable amount of time with him."
The actor-filmmaker added, "UR Ananthmurthy was not only worthy of respect for his extraordinary literary calibre but also his abiding belief in democracy and his conviction to stand up for those values."
Actor, filmmaker and playwright Girish Karnad whose collaboaration with Ananthmurthy on the 1970 film Samskara laid the foundation for the parallel cinema movement in Kannada too remembered the late writer as a "great litterateur and greater human being."
Echoing him was novelist-playwright Kiran Nagarkar who remembered Ananthmurthy "one of the tallest giants of Indian literature and a warm and generous person." He lamented, "His demise marks the end of an era and a way of life" and remembered, "Born in an ultra-conservative Brahmin family, he broke free of all shackles not only in his works and thoughts but also in the way he lived life." He added, "In an era when even the slightest dissent is snubbed in the harshest possible manner, he had the gumption to stand up for what he believed in and saying it without mincing words."
Marathi playwright Mahesh Elkunchwar who was close to Ananthmurthy told dna, "Some of the brightest talent in Indian writing is not to be found in English but in regional work which Anglophones look down on as vernacular. UR Ananthmurthy was one of the best examples of such illustrious work which married the local with the universal effortlessly."
Taking pride in the fact that Ananthmurthy too was from the Malenaad region of Karnataka where he hails from Na D'Souza one of Kannada literature's tallest names recalled how the late litterateur was one of the most important representatives of the 'Navya' or 'New Movement' which saw renaissance of sorts in regional literature. "Even when he was so ill himself he humbly asked after my well-being and health when I met him a month ago. Ever modest about his own achievements he was generous in his praise of my work."
Ananthamurthy was born in a small village of Melige in the Shimoga district of the Malenad region of Karnataka on December 21, 1932. The writer-thinker 'Gandhian socialist,' was an English literature postgraduate from Mysore University who pursued his Ph D on Politics and Fiction in the 1930s from the University of Birmingham. All his five novels, one play, eight short-story and essay anthologies each, three poetry anthologies have been translated into several Indian and European languages. Known for its humanity and courage in questioning cultural norms one of his best-known works is his 1966 novel, Samskara, which inspired its namesake national award winning Kannada film in 1970.
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