Mangesh Vitthal Rajadhyaksha (7 June 1913 – 19 April 2010) was a Marathi writer and critic. He studied at

Elphinstone College Elphinstone College is one of the constituent colleges of Dr. Homi Bhabha State University, a state cluster university. Established in 1856, it is one of the oldest colleges in Mumbai. It played a major role in shaping and developing the edu ...

in Mumbai, where he won the prestigious Wordsworth Prize for the best student in English literature. Rajadhyaksha later taught English literature at Elphinstone College,

Gujarat College Gujarat Arts & Science College, popularly and previously known as Gujarat College, is one of the oldest educational institutions of India and the second arts and science college of Gujarat, near Ellis Bridge, Ahmedabad. It was founded in 1845 a ...

(Ahmedabad) and

Rajaram College Rajaram College, Kolhapur is a government college affiliated to Shivaji University in Kolhapur. It offers junior college-level courses such as 11th & 12th, bachelor degree level courses such as ( BSc and BA) in science, humanities, languages an ...

(Kolhapur). He also served on several prestigious committees, including the

National Book Trust National Book Trust (NBT) is an Indian state-owned publishing house, headquartered in Delhi, India, founded in 1957 as an autonomous body under the Ministry of Education of the Government of India. NBT publishes reading material in several Indi ...

and the Jnanpith Trust that gives the

Jnanpith Award 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 ...

. He was closely involved with ''Abhiruchi'', a Marathi literary journal that was the launching pad for some of the greatest writers in the post-independence era. The Times of India reported at the time of his death: "His essays, collected in seven volumes, brought to Marathi literary criticism a rare perspicacity, candour and impatience with cant. His style was economical, precise and always lined with irony. He also coauthored a seminal history of Marathi literature with Kusumavati Deshpande. Panch Kavi, (पाच कवी) a selection of the works of five poets who represented the new and modern in poetry at the turn of the 19th century, became a literary classic. His preface to the volume remains one of the most lucidly argued pieces of literary criticism." The Marathi daily Loksatta, in an editorial, described his death as the death of a पुराणपुरुष, and one who was a scholar in the English critical tradition as well as a Marathi intellectual. He was the husband of the well-known Marathi writer Vijaya Rajadhyaksha. He died on 19 April 2010 at the age of 96.

Books

# पाच कवी (संपादित, 1946) # आकाश्भाशिते (1963) # खर्डेघाशी (1963) # अम्लान (1983) # शालजोडी (1983) # पंचम (1984) # पाक्षिकी (1986) # शब्दयात्रा (1986) # पुरुषराज अळूरपांडे (with P.L. Deshpande and R.V. Alurkar, 1988) # A History of Marathi Literature (with

Kusumavati Deshpande Kusumavati Deshpande (1904–1961) was a Marathi writer from Maharashtra, India. She was born on 10 November 1904 in Amravati, Bombay Presidency, her maiden having been Kusum Jaywant. Her father was a lawyer. After finishing her high school ed ...

, 1988) # भाषाविवेक (1997) # स्मरणसावल्या (2001) # वाद संवाद (with

Dattatraya Ganesh Godse Dattatraya Ganesh Godse (3 July 1914 – 5 January 1992) was an Indian historian, playwright, art critic, art director, theatre and costume designer, and illustrator. He received a Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1988. He wrote almost exclusivel ...

, 2003)

Essays

"Professor R. P. Kangle"
''Quelle: Perceptions on Kautilîya Artha´sâstra : in commemoration of Prof. R. P. Kangle's birth centenary'', ed. K. P. Jog. Mumbai: Popular Prakashan, 1999. . 207 – 216 * M.V. Rajadhakshya, "Shakespeare in Marathi", ''Indian Literature'', Sahitya Akademi, Delhi, vol.7 no.1 (1974), p. 83 * "Marathi Literature from A. D. 1800 to A. D. 1920". Maharashtra State Gazetteers, Government of Maharashtra Language and Literature

Translations

* Pendse, Shripad Narayan, ''The B.E.S.T. story'', S. N. Pendsay; rendered into English from the Marathi by M. V. Rajadhyaksha, Bombay Electric Supply & Transport Undertaking, Bombay: 1972

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rajadhyaksha, M.V. Indian male essayists Scholars from Mumbai 1913 births Writers from Mumbai University of Mumbai alumni Academic staff of the University of Mumbai 2010 deaths 20th-century Indian essayists 20th-century Indian educational theorists Elphinstone College alumni