V. K. Gokak
| V. K. Gokak | |
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| Born |
9 August 1909 Savanur, Dharwad, Bombay Presidency, British India |
| Died | 28 April 1992 (aged 82) Bengaluru, Karnataka |
| Occupation | Professor, writer |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Genre | Fiction |
| Literary movement | Navodaya |
| Children | Anil Gokak, Yashoda Gokak Bhat |
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Vinayaka Krishna Gokak (9 August 1909 – 28 April 1992) was a major writer in the Kannada language and a scholar of English and Kannada literatures. He was the fifth writer to be honoured with the Jnanpith Award in 1990 for Kannada language, for his epic Bharatha Sindhu Rashmi. Bharatha Sindhu Rashmi deals with the Vedic age and is perhaps the longest epic narrative in any language in the 20th Century. In 1961, Gokak was awarded the Padmashree from the Government of India for Dyava Prithvi.
Vinayak Gokak studied literature at Karnatak College, Dharwad, Karnataka, India and was later awarded a First class honours by the University of Oxford. On his return from Oxford in 1938, he became the principal of Willingdon College, Sangli. He was principal of Rajaram College, Kolhapur, Maharashtra from 1950-2. He was an ardent devotee of Sathya Sai Baba and served as the first Vice-Chancellor of Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning at Puttaparthi, Anantapur District between 1981 – 1985. His novel Samarasave Jeevana is considered one of the typical works of Navodaya literature in Kannada.
V.K Gokak was a prolific writer in both Kannada and English. He was deeply influenced by the Kannada poet D.R Bendre who mentored him during his early forays into Kannada literature. Bendre is reputed to have said that were Gokak to allow his talent to bloom in Kannada, there was a bright future in wait for Gokak and Kannada literature.
His epic 'Bharatha Sindhurashmi', running into 35000 lines, is notably the longest epic written in this century, for which he received the Jnanpith Award and also honorary doctorates from Karnataka University and Pacific University, USA.
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