Bengaluru, Nov. 26: Eminent Vedic scholar Dr Kanakapuram Srinivasachar Narayanacharya passed away at the age of 88 years at his residence due to prolonged age related health issues, a bereaved family member said here on Friday.
Dr Kanakapuram Srinivasachar Narayanacharya popularly known as Prof. K. S. Narayanacharya (Prof KSN) and also fondly called Ramayanacharya for his scholarly command over the Ramayana epic.
According to a family member, Prof KSN passed away at 2 am on Friday at his residence due to age related illness. He was born on 31st October 1933 in an orthodox and devout family of Sri Vaishnava Vedic scholars of Vadhula gotram in Kaankaanhalli village in Kanakapura taluk of Bengaluru Rural district.
From early days, he was a bright child and secured high ranks throughout this educational career. After completing his Matriculation in his hometown Kaankaanhalli village he went on to pursue his academic career at Mysore where he completed B.Sc., with physics and mathematics as major subjects but also pursued his passion in literature and he also completed B. A. (Hons), English and M.A., (Modern English literature) from the University of Mysore. His doctoral thesis was on “The Influence of Indian thought on the poetry of W.B. Yeats and T.S. Eliot”.
He was an erudite scholar whose main thrust is towards Nationalism, presented through the eyes of the epics.
He also pursued Vedic study – the Krishna Yajurveda – under the guidance of masters like Dandavati Siva Dixit Somayaji of Dharwad, where he had worked as Professor and Principal of the Karnataka Arts College, Karnatak University, Dharwad for over 32 years and as a teacher of English literature.
He has authored over 70 works in Kannada and English on varied subjects mainly related to the Vedas, Ramayana, Mahabharatha, Bhagavata, the Hymns of Alwars, Vedanta, Haridasa literature, Da. Ra. Bendre and Kautilya.
He was also a recipient of several state awards, including the Sangeetha Nritya Academy’s ‘Karnataka Kala Sri’, the Sahitya Academy prize, Gamaka Rathnakara from the state Government of Karnataka and titles from religious heads, like Veda Bhushana, Valmiki Hridayajna, Pravachana Kalanidhi and so on. Music, Indology, poetry, discourses and lecture tours were among the interests of Narayanacharya.
He was also an avid debater and a passionate advocator of Hindu values as lasting solutions for the maladies of society. He was a novelist who strove to shape epics into popular moulds of fiction. He also wrote serials which appear in the Kannada weeklies such as Tharanga and Karmavira. Narayanacharya spoke English, Kannada, Sanskrit and Tamil and has lectured all over India.
Several politicians and celebrities along with Chief Minister, Basavaraj Bommai and Union minister, Prahalad Joshi condoled his death.
In a post on Koo App, Mr Bommai said Prof KSN’s demise has caused immense loss to the Kannada literature.
