Mysuru :
Multilingual novelist and retired Hindi Professor of Mysore University Dr. M.S. Krishna Murthy (85), a resident of Saraswathipuram, passed away in the early hours of Wednesday. He leaves behind his wife Indiramma, two daughters (Umamani and Nalini) and son Shashidhara.
He was a recipient of many prestigious awards including ‘Gangasharana Simha’ award in 1991 by late President of India Shankar Dayal Sharma, ‘Nrupathinga’ award in 1993 and more than 20 awards. His works have been very highly appreciated and critically acclaimed. A chance meeting some years ago brought us together. The favourite topic with us was on literary works. He would drop at my place frequently to give me his books asking me to read.
With a person of his erudition, he was most unassuming and was a soul of simplicity. Recently he gave me a bulky book he had written in Kannada on Sufism and followed it with a book titled ‘Muslim Bhagavataru’ which is an amazing work. It had a preface by Rahmat Tharikere in which he has paid high encomiums.
Murthy served as Director of Gandhi Bhavan in the University of Mysore between 1988 and 1991 during which time he had read most of the books available in the library on Gandhiji. During 2011, he wrote a very unique book titled ‘Gandhicharitamaanasam’ which is a poetic tribute. In the preface to the book, Siddalinga Pattanna Shetty has paid high tribute to him. The other seminal books in Kannada are ‘Mukta Chintana,’ ‘Jai Somanatha’ ‘Meghadhoota-An old story’ (A translation to Kannada of Hazari Pasad Dwivedi’s book with preface by Ashtavadhani R.Ganesh).
In his death, I have lost a dear friend but the country has lost a finest jewel of literary genius. The loss to the world of Kannada and Hindi literature is irreparable. As far as I know, he has written more than 150 books of all genre including historical, religious, novels generally touching on lives of people, books for children and finest literary works both in Hindi and Kannada.
May his soul rest in peace.
—H.R. Bapu Satyanarayana
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> General News / Friday – February 05th, 2016