Kirtinath Kurtakoti ( kn, ಕೀರ್ತಿನಾಥ ಕುರ್ತಕೋಟಿ) (13 October 1928 – 31 July 2003) was a

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 and critic who won among other awards, the Central

Sahitya Akademi The Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, is an organisation dedicated to the promotion of literature in the languages of India. Founded on 12 March 1954, it is supported by, though independent of, the Indian government. Its of ...

honour of India. Apart from Kannada, he was well-versed in other languages including

Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

and

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 ...

Early life

Kurtakoti was born in the town of

Gadag Gadag-Betageri is a city municipal council in Gadag district in the state of Karnataka, India. It is the administrative headquarters of Gadag District. The original city of Gadag and its sister city Betageri (or ''Betgeri'') have a combined cit ...

in the

Indian state India is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories, with a total of 36 entities. The states and union territories are further subdivided into districts and smaller administrative divisions. History Pre-indepen ...

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...

on 13 October 1928. He completed his graduation in

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

from Karnataka College in

Dharwad Dharwad (), also known as Dharwar, is a city located in the north western part of the Indian state of Karnataka. It is the headquarters of the Dharwad district of Karnataka and forms a contiguous urban area with the city of Hubballi. It was merge ...

and served as a teacher in few colleges, before moving to the town of Anand in

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

. He completed his post-graduation in English and was employed at the

Sardar Patel University Sardar Patel University (SPU) is a public state university in Vallabh Vidyanagar, a town Gujarat, India. It is named after the iron man of India Vallabhbhai Patel, and was founded in October 1955 by an Act of the Legislative Assembly of the then ...

in Gujarat. He married Saraswati.

Contribution

His most prominent Kannada work is ''Marathi Samskruti - Kelavu Samasyegalu'' (''Marathi Culture - Some Problems'') which was originally written in

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 * * ...

by Sham. Bha. Joshi. This won him the Karnataka

award. Kannada Book Authority (KBA) allegedly included this translated version in a publication that it brought out, without taking the permission of Kurtakoti, forcing him to send a legal notice to KBA. He won the central

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 1995 for his book ''Uriya Nalage''. Other books include ''Chandragupta'', ''Bhringada Benneri'', ''Nadedu Banda Daari'' and ''Putta Bangara''. He has also written plays like ''Aa Mani'', which have been staged by troupes like

Ninasam Ninasam (Kannada: ನೀನಾಸಂ) is a cultural organisation located in the village of Heggodu in Sagara, India, Sagar Taluk of the Shivamogga district in the state of Karnataka, India. Ninasam (also spelt as Neenasam) is the short form of S ...

. His book ''Nadedu Banda Daari'' (''Path Traversed'') is a treatise on the achievement of Kannada literature from the past to the present, while his book ''Bhringada Benneri'' provides an overview of the poems of D. R. Bendre.

Later life

He spent his retired life at

. He held certain positions like that of an adviser to ''Manohara Granthamele'', a publishing house and was also nominated to the

Jnanpith The Jnanpith Award is the oldest and the highest Indian literary award presented annually by the Bharatiya Jnanpith to an author for their "outstanding contribution towards literature". Instituted in 1961, the award is bestowed only on Indian w ...

language panel. He was also a member of the syndicate of the

Kannada University Kannada University, also called Hampi Kannada University or Hampi University or Kannada University, Hampi, is a research-oriented public university in Hampi, Karnataka, founded in 1991 by the Government of Karnataka through the Kannada Universit ...

Hampi Hampi or Hampe, also referred to as the Group of Monuments at Hampi, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Hampi town, Vijayanagara district, east-central Karnataka, India. Hampi was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire in the 14th&n ...

. On 31 July 2003, aged 75, he died of

cardiac arrest Cardiac arrest is when the heart suddenly and unexpectedly stops beating. It is a medical emergency that, without immediate medical intervention, will result in sudden cardiac death within minutes. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and poss ...

, just about three hours after his wife's death.

Works

* ''Uriya Nalage'' * ''Marathi Samskruti-Kelavu Samasyegalu'' * ''Yugadharma mattu Sahitya Darshana'' * ''Nadedu Banda Daari'' * ''Bhringada Benneri'' * ''Chandragupta'' * ''Pratyabhijnana'' * ''Adhyayana mattu Parayana'' * ''Putta Bangara'' * ''Rajakeeya mattu Dharma'' * ''Arthantara'' * ''Aa Mani''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kurtakoti, Kirtinath Kannada-language writers 1928 births 2003 deaths People from Gadag-Betageri Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in Kannada People from Anand district Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Prize for Translation