Shivaji Sawant breathes last
in Goa
Sandesh Prabhudesai
18 September 2002
Shivaji
Sawant, a veteran Marathi writer, suddenly died of a
cardiac arrest in Goa today. He was 62.
Sawant was here for electioneering, as a frontrunner candidate for
the prestigious post of the president of the 76th
All India Marathi Literary Conference, scheduled to
be held in Karhad in December.
Known as ‘Mrityunjaykar’ for his famous novel of national repute
– Mrityunjay - on mythological personality of
Karna in Mahabharat, Sawant has several novels
based on Indian mythology and history to his credit.
The Pune-based fiction writer was one of the three contestants, besides
Mumbai-based Subhash Bhende of Goan origin and Jawahar
Mutha from Aurangabad. He had thus made a special trip
down to Goa and was supposed to meet Goan writers today
evening.
However, while in South Goa, he was admitted to the Grace Cardiac Centre
in Margao today morning due to chest pain. He however
could not survive for more than 30 minutes.
Born in Azra in Kolhapur district of Maharashtra, Sawant had also bagged
the prestigious Murti Devi Award of Dnyanpeeth in 1995,
besides Fie Foundation Award in 1996 and several other
awards at state level.
Having published 21 editions since 1967 of Mrityunjay with over
one lakh copies sold in Marathi itself, the famous novel
has also been translated in English, Hindi, Bengali,
Kannada, Malyalam, Gujarati and Rajasthani languages.
His recent novel Yugandhar, based on life-sketch of Lord Krishna,
has also been translated into Hindi, after it was released
in July 2000 at the hands of prime minister Atal Bihari
Vajpayee.
Besides three editions of his yet another novel Chava, based
on king Sambhaji’s life, Sawant has also written seven
other books, including biographies of famous personalities
like Krantisinha Patri Sarkar and Vikhe Patil.
The noted thinker also edited Marathi magazine Lok Shikshan,
released by the education department of Maharashtra,
from 1974 to 1980. He had also held the post of the
vice-president of Maharashtra Sahitya Parishad since
1995.
His wife Mrinalini, son Amitabh and daughter Kadambini survive Sawant.
His body will be taken to Pune today and the funeral
is likely to take place tomorrow.
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