The grand old man of Tamil literature
The Hindu
Ki. Ra. won Sahitya Akademi award in 1991 for Gopallapurathu Makkal, a novel about Telugu migrants
Ki. Rajanarayanan, the grand old man of modern Tamil literature and winner of the Sahitya Akademi award, died in Puducherry on Monday night. He was 98 and is survived by two sons. Born in Idaiseval near Kovilpatti, Rajanarayanan, popularly known as Ki. Ra., moved to Puducherry in 1989 after his appointment as the professor of folklore of the Tamil Department of Pondicherry University. “A pioneer in writing stories in dialects, Ki. Ra. also authored a dictionary of dialect — Karisal Kaatu Sollagarathi — which paved the way for similar dictionaries from other regions of the State,” said advocate K.S. Radhakrishnan, a close associate of Ki. Ra.More Related News