Adya Rangacharya

Adya Rangacharya (born 1904 Agarkhed, Bijapur district – died 1984) was an Indian writer in the Kannada language, actor and scholar, and a member of the Adya Jahagirdar family.^[1] 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.

He attended universities in Bombay and the University of London. His writings were original and prolific, which made him a trend-setter among Kannada and Indian writers. He was a recipient of the civilian honour of the Padma Bhushan.^[2]

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.^[1] Besides a translation of Natyasastra,^[3] 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.^[1]

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