Dattatreya Ramachandra
Bendre, the second Jnanpith award recipient from Karnataka, was born on Jan 31, 1896, in
Dharwad. Having lost his father at a very young age, Bendre grew up under the guardianship
of his uncle and completed his B.A. at the famous Fergusson College in Pune. He got his
M.A. in 1934 and worked as a teacher in different schools in different areas. His poem
Narabali (Human Sacrifice) got him 3 years' imprisonment at the Hindalga jail, after which
he remained unemployed for more than 5 years. He then joined Masti's monthly journal
Jeevana as its honorary editor and went on to work in several more schools and colleges
before joining the D.A.V. College of Sholapur as professor of Kannada. He remained in this
position for 12 years till his superannuation at age 60. But, even after retirement, he
continued to work in several places and his was indeed a highly chequered career which
exposed him to untold hardships in family life. But, amidst it all, his poetic genius
never failed to flower and in fact, his adversities proved to be an ever-lasting source of
inspiration and philosophy for his unique brand of poetry.
Bendre composed close to 30 collections of poems, but also produced many memorable plays,
short stories, critiques and translations, and he wrote in Marathi too.
Bendre's outstanding contributions to literature were recognised in various forms and on
various forums. He was elected the President of the 27th Kannada Sahitya Sammelana of
Shimoga in 1943; awarded honorary doctorate by the University of Mysore and the Karnatak
University; elected Fellow of the Central Sahitya Akademi in 1969; honoured with the
Central Sahitya Akademi 's award for his poem Aralu Maralu and awarded the supreme
literary prize of Jnanpith in 1974 for his anthology of poems Naku Thanthi .
Word wizard Bendre passed away on October 26, 1986, after playing a historical role in
keeping the rich traditions of Kannada poetry alive for over 5 decades. Dr. Vaman Bendre,
a renowned poet , critic and translator of Kannada and Marathi literature and son of D.R.
Bendre, has authored a biography of his father titled Bendre Jeevana Parichaya.
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