S L Bhyrappa: A rich, provocative legacy

S L Bhyrappa, who died at 94 on Wednesday, was one of India’s most prolific and provocative writers. In a career spanning six decades, he wrote 24 novels, many of which sparked intense and acrimonious debates. His fiction spanned subjects as diverse as myth and history, tradition and urbanisation, sexuality and space travel. Unusually for a writer tackling such weighty subjects, he had a huge and avid following, with his novels selling in record numbers and going into multiple reprints. Bhyrappa, who wrote in Kannada, has been translated extensively into other Indian languages and enjoys an admiring readership in Marathi and Hindi as well.

Born in 1931 into a poor family in Hassan district of Karnataka, Bhyrappa studied in a village school before moving to Mysuru for college. In his student years, he lived a life of extreme hardship. When he was in high school, he followed a cousin to Mumbai, worked as a railway porter, and wandered around for a year with two holy men before returning to Mysuru. He resumed his studies, wrote a doctoral thesis on truth and beauty, and began teaching philosophy. Parva (1979) is widely regarded as one of his finest works. It is an insightful retelling of the Mahabharata, and continues to trigger discussions. It recently inspired a mega theatre production. The best minds of modern Kannada literature and cinema engaged with Bhyrappa’s fiction. Girish Karnad and B V Karanth adapted his novel Tabbaliyu Neenade Magane (1968) and made a film of the same title. Girish Kasaravalli directed a tele-serial based on Bhyrappa’s novel Gruhabhanga. Matadana and Nayi Neralu – both novels – were also made into films.

Bhyrappa emerged on the literary firmament after such greats as Kuvempu and Shivarama Karanth. His contemporaries included U R Ananthamurthy, Poornachandra Tejaswi, and P Lankesh, all of whom looked at his body of work with scepticism. When Avarana, his most controversial book, was published in 2007, Ananthamurthy called it dangerous, suggesting that he had veered too far right with his Hindu-Muslim polemics. Aravind Adiga wrote that Avarana was his weakest novel, and that it would ensure that he would be passed over for the Jnanpith. With Avarana, Adiga said Bhyrappa was in “danger of having a fanbase composed entirely of bigots.” Bhyrappa was never personally interested in party politics, but the Hindu right wing had indeed embraced him, finding his philosophical positions on religion and history aligning with its own pet theories. Top BJP leaders have condoled his passing, while the stalwarts of Kannada literary criticism have respectfully remained mum. A recipient of many honours, including the Padma Bhushan, Bhyrappa was, without doubt, a writer who just couldn’t be ignored.