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Marathi novelist Shivaji Sawant dead

Renowned Marathi novelist Shivaji Sawant (62) died of a cardiac arrest in Goa on Wednesday.

He was electioneering in Goa as a candidate for the post of the president of the 76th All India Marathi Literary Conference, to be held in Karad, Maharashtra, in December.

Mumbai-based Subhash Bhende and Jawahar Mutha from Aurangabad were the other two contestants.

Born in Azra in Kolhapur district of Maharashtra, Sawant had got the Murti Devi Award of Dnyanpeeth in 1995, Fie Foundation Award in 1996 and several other honours at the state level.

Known as Mrityunjaykar for writing Mrityunjay, a novel on mythological figure Karna, Sawant had several works to his credit.

However, his most famous work remained Mrityunjay, which sold over a 100,000 copies in Marathi. It was also translated into English, Hindi, Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam, Gujarati and Rajasthani.

His recent novel Yugandhar, based on the life of Lord Krishna, was also translated into Hindi after its release in July 2000.

Sawant edited Marathi magazine Lok Shikshan, released by the education department of Maharashtra, from 1974 to 1980. He was also the vice-president of the Maharashtra Sahitya Parishad since 1995.

The writer has left behind wife Mrinalini, son Amitabh and daughter Kadambini. The body will be taken to Pune on Wednesday and the funeral is likely to take place on Thursday.

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