Masti Venkatesha
Iyengar, Karnataka's fourth recipient of the prestigious Jnanpith award was one of the
tradition-makers of Kannada literature. He was born on June 6, 1891, in Masti village of
Kolar district. By the sheer strength of his intelligence and industry, Masti built a
distinguished academic career for himself, passing the MCS examination in 1913 and
securing M.A. in 1914. As a civil servant, he held various positions of high
responsibility in different parts of Karnataka, before retiring voluntarily in 1943. His
long and diverse career of 3 decades was marked by total dedication to public service and
exceptional administrative ability. And his wealth of experience as a bureaucrat gave
immense inspiration for his literary works. His pseudonym Srinivasa is as popular as his
native village Masti, in Kannada literary circles today.
Masti, in fact, started composing stories right in his student days. His first published
work 'Kelavu Sanna Kathegalu' became the first noted work in the history of modern Kannada
short stories. A master story-teller, Masti had a unique relationship with this genre of
literature and was therefore aptly called the "Brahma of Kannada Stories",
"Forefather of Short Stories", et al. His works carry the best elements of
literature in story form and with their inimitable language, narrative style and richness
of theme and realities, powerfully relate to the readers. His story Subbanna, based on the
life of a musician is a good example of this and it has been translated into several
Indian and foreign languages. Channabasava Nayaka and Chikkaveera Rajendra, both
historical novels, are the best examples of the fertility of Masti's literary gifts.
Masti also penned quite a number of poems on different philosophic, aesthetic and social
themes which give us an insight into his versatile creative personality. He also composed
and translated several important plays and authored several works in English, wrote
biographies-including the 3-volume autobiography 'Bhava' and edited the monthly journal
'Jeevana' from 1944 - 1965 which was a memorable era in Kannada journalism.
In terms of quality, quantity, depth and diversity, Masti's works present a true challenge
to any researcher. He has written more than 120 books in Kannada and more than 17 books in
English, over a period of 7 decades, giving abundant inspiration to generations of
literary talents in Kannada.
Masti's output naturally attracted fellowships, awards, doctorates, presidentships and
honours and recognition in numerous other forms. The most notable of them were, of course,
the Jnanpith award which came to him in 1983, in recognition of his historical novel
Chikkaveera Rajendra as an important literary work of post-Independent India.
After leading an exemplary and complete life in which he succeeded in placing Kannada
brilliantly on the literary atlas of India, Masti passed away in 1986 at the age of 95. |
