Adya Rangacharya


Adya Rangacharya, known as R.V. Jagirdar till 1948, later popularly known by his pen name Sriranga, was an Indian Kannada writer, actor and scholar, and a member of the Adya Jahagirdar family. He was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship in 1967 and the Sahitya Akademi Award for literature in 1971 for Kalidasa, a literary criticism in Kannada.
Rangacharya has been honoured with the Padma Bhushan third highest Indian civilian award for his contributions to the literature and education in 1972 by the Government of India.

Life

Adya Rangacharya birth name was R. V. Jagirdar and was born in Agarkhed, Bijapur district. He has his education at Bombay and London Universities. His writings made him a trend-setter among Kannada and Indian writers. His works include twelve novels and a number of scholarly books on the theatre, on Sanskrit drama and the Bhagavadgita; but it was as a dramatist that he made his mark. He is known for his English translation of the classic work on Indian classical theatre, the Natyasastra

Works

Rangacharya's works include twelve novels and a number of scholarly books on the Theatre, on Sanskrit drama and the Bhagavadgita. He also wrote 71 plays and acted in 47. Besides a translation of Natyasastra, his other works in English include Drama in Sanskrit Literature, Indian Theatre, Introduction to Bharata’s Natyasastra, and Introduction to the Comparative Philosophy and Indo-Aryan Languages. He use the pseudonym Sriranga when writing most of his plays and literary work.
His works in English are: