Kannada poet and critic Sumatheendra R Nadig
The 83-year-old writer, who was ailing, passed away at 6:25 am after suffering a heart attack. He is survived by his wife, two daughters and his son, who reside in JP Nagar's Puttenahalli.
Sumatheendra was a prominent name in the modernist literary movement in Karnataka in the 1960s and 1970s and also headed the National Book Trust in from 1996 to 1999.
He was born in Kalasa in Chikkamagaluru
His other notable works include ‘Panchabhoota' besides critical works on fellow notable writers Da Ra Bendre and Gopalkrishna Adi
In fact, he was a master of several languages and was proficient in Kannada, English, Hindi, Marathi, Konkani and Bengali.
He was a close associate of Gopalkrishna, who is credited with spearheading the modernist literary movement in the state.
He has two masters degrees in English, one from Mysore University and another from Temple University in Philadelphia. He has also received a PhD in Kannada from Bangalore University.
He has also worked as a professor at various institutes around the world including Bangalore University, Temple University, Philadelphia and Haverford College, Pennsylvania.
"Sumatheendra Nadig was a prominent poet in the literary movement. He even brought important literary works in other languages to Kannada. He took readers to a surreal world with his writings and his critical writings on Gopalakrishna Adiga was comprehensive and revealed a side of the author others did not," said SG Siddaramaiah, Chairman of the Kannada Development Authority.