Ramchandra Chintaman Dhere (21 July 1930 – 1 July 2016) was a

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

writer from

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

, India.

Early life

Dhere was born in the small village of Nigade in

Pune district Pune district (Marathi pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, uɳeː is the most populous district in the Indian state of Maharashtra. The district's population was 9,429,408 in the 2011 census, making it the fourth most populous district amongst I ...

. He was orphaned at an early age of five. He studied at Municipal School, Pune, Poona English School, Poona Night School and graduated in 1966. During high school days he worked as a proof reader in the local press. Dhere earned a PhD in Marathi in 1975. His doctoral thesis titled ''Shtsthal: Ek Adhyan'' was completed under the guidance of Ramchandra Shankar Walimbe. In 1980, he became the first person to obtain a Doctorate of Literature from

Pune University Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU), formerly the University of Poona, is a collegiate public state university located in the city of Pune, India. It was established in 1949, and is spread over a campus in the neighbourhood of Ganeshk ...

Career

From his childhood, Dhere was deeply influenced by folk-life and literature. He was drawn towards saint literature such as

Warkari Warkari ( Marathi: वारकरी; Pronunciation: �aːɾkəɾiː Meaning: 'The one who performs the ''Wari) is a sampradaya (religious movement) within the bhakti spiritual tradition of Hinduism, geographically associated with the In ...

and

Nath Nath, also called Natha, are a Shaiva sub-tradition within Hinduism in India and Nepal. A medieval movement, it combined ideas from Buddhism, Shaivism and Yoga traditions in India.saints In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity; is considered worthy of spiritual res ...

. He also composed several poems and musical plays. Dhere lost almost all of his collection of old books in 1961 when the

Panshet Dam Panshet Dam, also called Tanajisagar Dam, is a dam on the Ambi river, a tributary of the Mutha River, about southwest of the city of Pune in western India.The dam was constructed in late 1950s for irrigation and, along with three other dams nearb ...

broke flooding the city of Pune. Dhere received a

Sahitya Akademi Award The Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honour in India, which the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the 22 languages of the ...

in 1987 for his literary criticism ''Shri Vitthal: Ek MahaSamanvay''. The highly influential book was translated to English by

Anne Feldhaus Anne Feldhaus (Phelḍahāusa, Âna; born 1949) is Distinguished Foundation Professor of Religious Studies, Emeritus Professor, at Arizona State University. Her field of specialty is Maharashtra, India, combining philological and ethnographic a ...

and published by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

in 2011.

Death and legacy

Dhere died in Pune on 1 July 2016 at the age of 86 following prolonged illness. Writer

Aruna Ramchandra Dhere Aruna Ramchandra Dhere (Devanagari: अरुणा रामचंद्र ढेरे) (b. 2 Feb 1957) is a Marathi writer from Maharashtra, India. She was the President of the 92nd Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan held at Yavatmal ...

is his daughter. In 2019, a library was built in Pune to preserve a collection of his books.

Literary work

The following is a partial list of Dhere's works:

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dhere, Ramchandra Chintamani Marathi-language writers Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in Marathi 1930 births People from Pune district 2016 deaths