Rāvūri Bharadvāja (1927 – 18 October 2013) was a

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 ...

winning Telugu novelist, short-story writer, poet and critic. He wrote 37 collections of

short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...

, seventeen

novel A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...

s, four play-lets, and five

radio play Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatised, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine ...

s. He also contributed profusely to

children's literature Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...

. ''Paakudu Raallu'', a graphic account of life behind the screen in

film industry The film industry or motion picture industry comprises the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking, i.e., film production company, production companies, film studios, cinematography, animation, film production, screenwriting, pre- ...

, is considered his magnum opus. ''Jeevana Samaram'' is another of his popular works. He could not study beyond class 7 but earned fame through his short stories, poetry and critical reviews. He had done several odd jobs but later worked in weeklies and also in All India Radio. Ravuri Bharadwaja was born as the eldest child to Ravuri Kottayya and Mallikamba in his maternal village. He was brought up in his native village, Tadikonda in

Guntur district Guntur district is one of the twenty six districts in the Coastal Andhra region of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The administrative seat of the district is located at Guntur, the List of urban agglom ...

. At the age of 14, he left his house and stayed on in the village, on the banks of the village tank. He was supported by friendly and kind villagers for food, working as a farm labour, a construction worker and other menial jobs- which became subjects of his later stories. He received honorary doctorates, a Central Sahitya Akademi award and ultimately the

. He was only the third Telugu writer to be honoured with the country's highest literary award. He was awarded the 48th Jnanpith award for the year 2012 which was announced on 17 April 2013 for his contribution to Telugu literature through many notable works. He died in Hyderabad on 18 October 2013.

Education

He was born in Moguluru village,

Krishna District Krishna district is a district in the Coastal Andhra region in Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, with Machilipatnam as its administrative headquarters. It is surrounded on the East by Bay of Bengal, West by Guntur district, Guntur, Bapatla distric ...

in the house of his maternal grandparents. He was educated till Class 7 only, in his native Tadikonda in

. However his books are used as course works in B.A, M.A and there have even been several PhD degrees awarded for research on his works. He got honorary doctorates from Andhra, Nagarjuna, Vignan and Jawaharlal Nehru Technological Universities for his literary prowess.

Awards

Bharadhwaja has been twice awarded the State Sahitya Academy Award for Literature and in 1983 was the winner of the Central Sahitya Academy Award. In 1968, he was the inaugural recipient of the Gopichand Literary Award. He was conferred the Rajalakshmi Award for Literature in 1987 and the Lok Nayak Foundation's Literary Award in 2009. In 2013, Ravuri Bharadhwaja became the third Telugu author to be conferred the

for his contribution to Telugu literature.

Works

He has 37 collections of short stories, 17 novels, six short novels for children and eight plays to his credit. *''Phantomy quintette and other stories'', Translator Purush, India Balaji Grandha Mala, 1970 *''Love's labour lost and other stories'', Rāvūri Bharadvāja, Translator Purush, M. Seshachalam, 1975 *''Ad infinitum: featurised poetic story'', Rāvūri Bharadvāja, Balaji Grandhamala, 1987 *''Kaumudi translated by Navnit Madrasi'', 1988 *''Un Aankhon ki katha: (short story)''. Bharatiya Jnanpith, 1991 *''Ripple-marks: readings from Bharadwaja's Eegiac pentad''

References

Sources

*''60 years and after: about Dr. Ravuri Bharadwaja'', Purush, s.n., 1987 *''Telugulō smr̥ti sāhityaṃ-Bharadvāja racanalu: siddhānta vyāsaṃ'', Vai. E. Viśālākṣmi, Śrīsatyasāyi Pracuraṇalu, 1998

External links

"Ravuri Bharadwaja - Drops of Light", ''Lokabhiramam'', 30 November 2009
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bharadwaja, Ravuri 1927 births 2013 deaths Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in Telugu Recipients of the Jnanpith Award Indian male short story writers Indian male novelists 20th-century Indian poets 20th-century Indian novelists Indian male poets Poets from Andhra Pradesh Writers from Krishna district 20th-century Indian short story writers Novelists from Andhra Pradesh 20th-century Indian male writers