K. Krishanamoorthy

K. Krishnamoorthy (1923-1997) was a well-known scholar of Sanskrit literature. His unfathomable depth of scholarship, astounding quality and bulk of his writings and his emphasis on practical criticism brought him lasting fame as a scholar of Sanskrit, Kannada and English. He wrote, edited and translated many books pertaining to the literary fields of Sanskrit and Kannada. His field of special interest is Alankara Shastra. His researches on the theory of Dhvani are monumental. His works spread over three languages; viz Kannada, Sanskrit and English. His translations of Sanskrit works on Alankara Shastra were extremely well-received, appreciated and acknowledged by the scholars and as well as students. During his student days he struggled hard to come up and with great determination and achieve the goal. He wrote on a variety of subjects including poetics, poetry, histories of literature, philosophy, etc. This monograph tries to gives a comprehensive picture of his literary and scholarly achievements.

K.G. Narayana Prasad (b.1950) is a scholar in Kannada, having Modern Kannada Prosody as his area of specialization. He is a distinguished teacher, author, translator, researcher and critic and has several publications to his credit. Dr. Prasad worked as Professor and Head, Department of Kannada at Osmania University, Hyderabad and before retiring from service in 2010. In this monograph he has discussed the life and works of Dr. K. Krishnamoorthy for non-Kannada readers.

I am an indirect student of Dr. K. Krishnamoorthy. I never had his direct contact. His works attracted me towards the study of Indian Poetics. When I was doing my M.A., Prof. T. N. Shrikantaiah's Bharatiya Kavyamimamse was the prescribed text. It introduced me the taste of the subject. With its inspiration, I got an urge to study the Sanskrit originals on poetics. Then, Prof. S. V. Parameshwara Bhatta, our beloved teacher, guided me towards the translations done by Dr. K. Krishnamoorthy. He was a close friend of both Dr. K. Krishnamoorthy as well as Prof. H. M. Shankaranarayana Rao, the publisher of Krishnamoorthy's works. I went in that direction and a new world of great scholarship, opened up to me. The way in which those works attracted a fresher like me is unforgettable. I liked the simple and graspable style in them very much. I started giving preference to them than even to the stories and novels. Thus starts my indirect contact with Dr. K. Krishnamoorthy.

To write about him, this is the only qualification 1 have. I am not even having an in depth knowledge of Indian Poetics. When I was teaching it along with the Western Literary Criticism, I had an opportunity to study Krishnamoorthy's translations and got immense help. I was not having courage to write a book on him with such a minimum capacity of mine. The root cause for my venture is Professor Mahamahopadhyaya Dr. Pullela Sriramachandrudu. While he was the Professor and Head of the department of Sanskrit at Osmania University, Hyderabad, I joined the same University as a lecturer in the department of Kannada. Since then he is having a special affection towards me. After his retirement from service, he attained high ranks in the Sanskrit Scholarly world. Even then, his affection never decreased. He has directed me to write this book. Accepting it with great respect, I have completed this work. I tried my best to narrate what all I could understand about Dr. Krishnamoorthy. I will be happy if the readers accept this.

I am very much grateful to Prof. P. Sriramachandrudu for the inspiration and opportunity I got through him. And also to the authorities of the Akademi who provided me this opportunity. I thank Mr. Karthik, Bangalore, who supplied some important dates. I cannot forget the help I got from Ms. K. N. Aparna Shriraksha and Ms. K. N. Shrividya Ranjani in finalizing the draft.

**Contents and Sample Pages**