Playwright Girish Karnad Passes Away At 81

A public intellectual and Jnanpith awardee, he strode the world of arts and writing like a colossus

Girish Karnad, writer, playwright, actor and public intellectual, passed away in his sleep at his residence here on Monday morning. He was 81, and is survived by wife Saraswati Ganapathi and two children.

The Jnanpith and Padma awardee was hailing due to degenerative respiratory issues for some time and was on oxygen support. His cremation was held without religious rituals, public viewing or state honours, as per his last wishes, at Kalpalli cemetery in the afternoon.

While the State government declared a day’s holiday and three-day State mourning, a cross section of writers, actors and political leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Ramnath Kovind, condoled Mr. Karnad’s death. In a tweet, historian Ramachandra Guha said, “In his life, he embodied the richness and depth of Indian civilization more nobly and less self-consciously than anyone else I knew.”