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 people (Uttar Pradesh), the Marathi people in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Mar ...

writer 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.

Early life

Dhere was born in the small village of Nigade in Pune district. 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 Pune, is a 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 Ganeshkhind. The uni ...

Career

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

Warkari Warkari ( ; Marathi: ; Pronunciation: ; Meaning: 'The one who performs the ''Wari) is a sampradaya (religious movement) within the bhakti spiritual tradition of Hinduism, geographically associated with the Indian state of Maharashtra. Warka ...

and

Nath Natha, also called Nath (), are a Shaivism, Shaiva sub-tradition within Hinduism in India and Nepal. A medieval movement, it combined ideas from Buddhism, Shaivism, Tantra and Yoga traditions of the Indian subcontinent.

sects and started studying them. Dhere wrote over 100 scholarly books, including some edited or translated works of others, on Marathi folk literature and culture, reconstruction of cultural history of places, religious sects in Maharashtra, and biographies of marathi

saints In Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Anglican, Oriental Orth ...

. 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 near ...

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 app ...

and published by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press 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 (born 2 February 1957) is a Marathi writer from Maharashtra, 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 c ...

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