K P Purnachandra Tejasvi

About K P Purnachandra Tejasvi

Among the foremost modern Kannada writers, K P Purnachandra Tejasvi (1938-2007) published five novels, five collections of short stories, two books of non-fiction, a travelogue, a play, a collection of poems, and a book of biographical essays on his father, the writer, Kuvempu. He has also extensively translated nature and science writings from English to Kannada. After completing his BA (Hons) and MA in Kannada literature at the University of Mysore, between 1957 and 1961, Tejasvi became a coffee planter near Mudigere, a small town in Chikmagalur district. After a brief sojourn with the Navya (modernist) movement in Kannada literature in the late 1950s and 1960s, he broke away from it to chart his distinctive literary style. An avid lover of the environment and passionate about photography, he identified himself closely with Lohiaite politics in the 1970s and its offshoot, the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (Karnataka State Farmers’ Union), which was launched in the early 1980s. Four feature films and six theatre productions have been based on Tejasvi’s writings.