Biography of U.R. Ananthamurthy

U. R. Ananthamurthy was born on December 21, 1932, in the Indian town of Tirthahalli Taluk. He was raised in a Brahmin family that spoke the Kannada language. He attended school in Doorvasapura, Tirthahalli, and Mysore. He was awarded a master's degree from the University of Mysore and went on to teach English there. He then traveled to England to continue his studies in English. He received a doctorate from the University of Birmingham in 1966. Ananthamurthy's academic career flourished after this. He went on to teach at Jawaharlal Nehru University, University of Tübingen, University of Iowa, Tufts University, and Shivaji University. Ananthamurthy married his wife, Esther, in 1956. They had two children together and lived in Bangalore.

Most of Ananthamurthy's work deals with politics and class, exploring the psychology of characters placed into difficult situations, including Brahmins facing spiritual crises and bureaucrats tasked with overwhelming jobs. He is known for being sharply critical of political injustice and class oppression, with vocal objections to the practices informed by India's caste systems. His notable works of fiction include Samskara (1965), Bhava (1998), and Bharathipura (1963). His work has been widely praised by critics. In a review of Samskara for the Wall Street Journal, Chandrahas Choudry writes “[Samskara] contains a plot of Sophoclean intensity that with the passing of the years seems to have gathered ever more revelatory power…It’s a startling story, one as provocative for its time and place as those of Cervantes, Sterne and Diderot must have been in theirs.” His work has received the Basheer Puraskaram, the Nadoja Award, and the Jnanpith Award. In addition, he was nominated for the Man Booker Prize in 2013. Ananthamurthy died of a heart attack in Bangalore on August 22, 2014, at the age of 81.