Kannada scholar-poet NS Lakshminarayan Bhat no more

Bengaluru: Kannada poet NS Lakshminarayan Bhat who was was awarded the Karnataka Sahitya Akademi in 1974 passed away on Saturday, March 6.

Born in Shivamogga district, he completed his M.A., from Maharaja’s college in Mysore and a PhD at Bangalore University, he served briefly as a teacher of Kannada literature at Acharya Pata Shala (APS College) in Bengaluru before joining Bangalore University where he served as a professor and chairman of the department for more than 20 years serving as the dean (1990) of the Arts College prior to his retirement from the University.

Bhat is a scholar-poet widely read in Kannada, English and Sanskrit literature. His very early work Horalu Daariyalli Kaavya (Poetry on a fun road), in the early 1970s earned him the Sahitya Academy award and announced him to the literary world as a poet of much skill.

Dr. Bhatta has translated 50 sonnets of William Shakespeare, the poetry of TS Elliot and works of poet Yeats into Kannada language. The Masti Award was given to poet N.S. Lakshminarayana Bhatta in 2007.He was recognized for his contribution to modern Kannada poetry and literary criticism with numerous awards and honors. His effort related to popularizing the works of the bard Shishunala Sharif led to a renaissance in the Kannada Bhavageetha movement, earning Dr. Bhatta the moniker of “Sharif Bhatta”.