Adya Rangacharya (26 September 1904 – 17 October 1984), known as R.V. Jagirdar till 1948, later popularly known by his
pen name
A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name.
A pen na ...
Sriranga, was an Indian
Kannada
Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...
writer, actor and scholar, and a member of the ''Adya Jahagirdar family''.
He was awarded the
Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship
The Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship, also known as Akademi Ratna Sadasyata, is an Indian honour for the performing arts presented by Sangeet Natak Academy. It is "the most prestigious and rare honour" conferred by the Academy and is "restricte ...
in 1967 and the
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 ...
for literature in 1971 for ''Kalidasa'', a literary criticism in Kannada.
Rangacharya has been honoured with the
Padma Bhushan
The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished service ...
third highest Indian civilian award for his contributions to the literature and education in 1972 by the
Government of India
The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...
.
Life
Adya Rangacharya birth name was R. V. Jagirdar
and was born in
Agarkhed,
Bijapur district. He has his education at
Bombay
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...
and
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
Universities. His writings made him a trend-setter among Kannada and Indian writers. His works include twelve novels and a number of scholarly books on the theatre, on Sanskrit drama and the Bhagavadgita; but it was as a dramatist that he made his mark (47 full-length and 68 one-act plays).
[ WorldCat author listing]
/ref> He is known for his English translation of the classic work on Indian classical theatre, the Natyasastra
The ''Nāṭya Śāstra'' (, ''Nāṭyaśāstra'') is a Sanskrit treatise on the performing arts. The text is attributed to sage Bharata Muni, and its first complete compilation is dated to between 200 BCE and 200 CE, but estimates vary ...
[Rangacharya, Adya (1904-84), in ''The Oxford Companion to Indian Theatre']
Oxford Reference Online
/ref>
Works
Rangacharya's works include twelve novels and a number of scholarly books on the Theatre, on Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
drama and the Bhagavadgita
The Bhagavad Gita (; sa, श्रीमद्भगवद्गीता, lit=The Song by God, translit=śrīmadbhagavadgītā;), often referred to as the Gita (), is a 700- verse Hindu scripture that is part of the epic ''Mahabharata'' (c ...
. He also wrote 71 plays and acted in 47.[ Besides a translation of ]Natyasastra
The ''Nāṭya Śāstra'' (, ''Nāṭyaśāstra'') is a Sanskrit treatise on the performing arts. The text is attributed to sage Bharata Muni, and its first complete compilation is dated to between 200 BCE and 200 CE, but estimates vary ...
, his other works in English include Drama in Sanskrit Literature
Sanskrit literature broadly comprises all literature in the Sanskrit language. This includes texts composed in the earliest attested descendant of the Proto-Indo-Aryan language known as Vedic Sanskrit, texts in Classical Sanskrit as well as s ...
, Indian Theatre, Introduction to Bharata’s Natyasastra, and Introduction to the Comparative Philosophy and Indo-Aryan Languages
The Indo-Aryan languages (or sometimes Indic languages) are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. As of the early 21st century, they have more than 800 million speakers, primarily ...
. He use the pseudonym Sriranga when writing most of his plays and literary work.[
His works in English are:
*Bharata, Muni, and Śrīraṅga. '' The Nāṭyaśāstra: English Translation with Critical Notes.'' New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, 1996.
*Drama in Sanskrit Literature, and Introduction to the Comparative Philosophy and Indo-Aryan Languages.
*Rangacharya, Adya. ''Introduction to Bharata's Nātya-Śāstra.'' Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 1966.][ WorldCat]
/ref>
*Rangacharya, Adya. ''The Indian Theatre.'' New Delhi: National Book Trust, India, 1971.
*Śrīraṅga, . Drama in Sanskrit Literature. Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 1967 (2nd ed.)
*Śrīraṅga, .'' The Quest for Wisdom, Thoughts on the Bhagawadgita.'' Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 1993. (translation of two Kannada works ''Gītagāmbhīrya'' and ''Gītādarpaṇa''
Among his works translated into English are
*Rangacharya, Adya, (transl. by G S. Amur).''Listen Janamejaya and Other Plays.'' New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 2005.
*Śrīraṅga, (transl. by Shashi Deshpande) ''Opening Scene: Early Memoirs of a Dramatist and a Play.'' New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2006.
*Rangacharya, Adya, (transl. by Usha Desai). ''Shadows in the Dark: Four Plays.'' Bangalore, India: Unisun Publications, 2007.
*Sriranga, .'' These Tombs Alone Remain: A Novel'' Bangalore: Shriranga Saraswat Prakashana, 1959.
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rangacharya, Adya
1904 births
1984 deaths
20th-century Indian dramatists and playwrights
20th-century Indian male actors
Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in Kannada
Kannada dramatists and playwrights
Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in literature & education
Indian male dramatists and playwrights
Dramatists and playwrights from Karnataka
Male actors from Karnataka
Male actors in Kannada theatre
Kannada-language writers
Indian male stage actors
Novelists from Karnataka
Writers from Karnataka
20th-century Indian male writers
20th-century Indian historians
People from Bijapur district, Karnataka
Recipients of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship