Ram Balkrushna Shewalkar (2 March 1931 – 3 May 2009) was a

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India **Marathi people (Uttar Pradesh), the Marathi people in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Mar ...

orator, writer, and literary critic from

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. He was born on 2 March 1931 in

Achalpur Achalpur (), formerly known as Ellichpur and Illychpur, is a city and a municipal council in Amravati District in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the second most populous city in Amravati District after Amravati and seventh most populous ...

Amravati district Amravati district (Marathi pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, �mɾaːʋət̪iː is a Districts of Maharashtra, district of Maharashtra state in central India. It is the administrative headquarter of Amravati division, which is one of the two ...

of Maharashtra.

Career

Shewalkar obtained post graduate college degrees in

and

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

literature. He taught Sanskrit in a college for some years, and served for more than 25 years as the principal of a college at Wani in

Yavatmal district Yavatmal district , əʋət̪maːɭformerly known as Yeotmal, is a district of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is located in the region of Vidarbha, in the east-central part of the state. It is Vidarbha's third-largest district by popula ...

. In the 1980s, musician and singer

Hridaynath Mangeshkar Pandit Hridaynath Mangeshkar (Marathi pronunciation: �ɾud̪əjnaːt̪ʰ məŋɡeːʃkəɾ born 26 October 1937) is an Indian music director and occasional singer. He is the only son of musician Deenanath Mangeshkar and younger brother of ...

presented to the public in Maharashtra a popular musical program ''Amrutacha Ghanu'' which was based on the poetic compositions of

Dnyaneshwar Sant Dnyaneshwar (Marathi pronunciation: ̪ɲaːn̪eʃʋəɾ, (Devanagari : सन्त ज्ञानेश्वर), also referred to as Jñāneśvara, Jñānadeva, Dnyandev or Mauli or Dnyaneshwar Vitthal Kulkarni (1275–1296 (living ...

. Just before his musical presentations, Shewalkar would present a scholarly commentary on Dnyaneshwar’s works. The commentary received much acclaim in the Marathi-speaking public in Maharashtra. Shewalkar's first literary work was an anthology titled ''Asoshi'' (असोशी) (1956). He wrote 59 books, literary reviews, and anthologies. His scholarship pertained to

Ramayana The ''Ramayana'' (; ), also known as ''Valmiki Ramayana'', as traditionally attributed to Valmiki, is a smriti text (also described as a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic) from ancient India, one of the two important epics ...

and

Mahabharata The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; , , ) is one of the two major Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epics of ancient India revered as Smriti texts in Hinduism, the other being the ''Ramayana, Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the events and aftermath of the Kuru ...

; the works of poet saints of Maharashtra, including

Tukaram Tukaram (Marathi pronunciation: ̪ukaːɾam, also known as Tuka, Tukobaraya and Tukoba, was a Hindu Marathi saint of the Warkari sampradaya in Dehu village, Maharashtra in the 17th century. He was a '' bhakt'' of the god Vithoba, also kn ...

, and Ramdas; and modern personalities like

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (28 May 1883 – 26 February 1966 ), was an Indian politician, activist and writer. Savarkar developed the Hindu nationalist political ideology of Hindutva while confined at Ratnagiri in 1922. The prefix "Veer" (mea ...

and

Vinoba Bhave Vinayak Narahar Bhave, also known as Vinoba Bhave (; 11 September 1895 – 15 November 1982), was an Indian advocate of nonviolence and human rights. Often called ''Acharya'' (Teacher in Sanskrit), he is best known for the Bhoodan Movement. He ...

. "निवडक मराठी आत्मकथा" and "अंगारा" are the titles of two of his books. Website: www.ramshewalkar.com

Recognition

Shewalkar was a member of the Maharashtra State Film Censor Board for eleven years.

Nagpur University Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University (RTMNU), formerly Nagpur University, is a public state university located in Nagpur, Maharashtra. It is one of India's oldest universities, as well as the second-oldest in Maharashtra. It is named ...

awarded him an honorary D. Litt. degree. He received Dinanath Mangeshkar Kusumagraj award, Nag Bushan award, and Jeenvrati Puraskar of Vidarbha Sahitya Sangh. He presided over

Marathi Sahitya Sammelan Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan (All India Marathi Literary Conference) is an annual conference for literary discussions by Marathi writers. Marathi is the official language of Maharashtra State. The first Marathi Sahitya Sammelan was ...

Panaji Panaji (; , , )also known as Panjim, is the capital of the Indian state of Goa and the headquarters of North Goa district. Previously, it was the territorial capital of the former Portuguese India. It lies on the banks of the Mandovi river est ...

in 1994.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shewalkar, Ram Balkrushna Marathi-language writers 1931 births 2009 deaths People from Amravati district Presidents of the Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan