Vyankatesh Madgulkar

Vyankatesh Digambar Madgulkar (6 July 1927 - 28 August 2001) was one of the most popular Marathi writers of his time. He became well-known mainly for his realistic writings about village life in a part of southern Maharashtra called Maandesh, set in a period of 15 to 20 years before and after Independence. He was often called Tatya (“old man”, or “grand old man” in Marathi) by his admirers, friends and family members

Madgulkar was born in the village of Madgul in Sangli District of Maharashtra. His father was in the employment of the government of the Aundh princely state. His brother was the famous poet G. D. Madgulkar.

When Madgulkar was in his teens, he left home and joined a group of nationalists fighting for India’s freedom from the British Raj. For these activities, the British government banned him as a criminal for two years.

After independence, Madgulkar returned home. Though he had never finished his high school education, but he passed vernacular final Marathi 7th exam with good marks. He got a school teacher job at Nimbawade village that time he was only 14 years old. he had a keen interest in reading. He taught himself to read English on his own so that he could become familiar with English as well as Marathi literature. He cited especially the influence of John Steinbeck, George Orwell and Liam O'Flaherty.

Madgulkar also had an aptitude for sketching and painting, so he went to Kolhapur to take painting lessons. While studying there, at age 19, he entered a competition for short story writing and won a prize. This encouraged him to pursue a literary career rather than painting.

In 1948, when he was 21, he became a journalist and, two years later, he moved to Mumbai where he had the opportunity to write scripts for a few Marathi movies.

In 1955, Madgulkar took a job in Pune in the rural programming department of All India Radio. He worked there for the next 40 years. During all those years, he wrote abundantly.

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