Vyasaraya Ballal

Vyasaraya Ballal was an eminent Indian fiction writer & author in the Kannada language. He was born on December 1, 1923. Vyasaraya Ballal’s place of birth is Ambalapady, Udupi district in Karnataka. He completed his matriculation at Madras University in 1939. Later, he left Udupi and joined employment in Caltex Ltd. at Bombay in 1944. Also, he had three years of journalistic experience in a socialist political weekly in Bombay. Vyasaraya Ballal started his literary life by contributing to a Kannada journal Nudi in Mumbai. His first novel was Anurakte, which first appeared as a serial in the journal Nudi. It was only later that the novel got published. In 1957, he received State Award for ‘Anurakhte.’ He was susceptible to the role of feminism in his literary works such as Anurakte, Hemathagana, Uttarayana Uttarayana is an Indian television serial which ai >> Read More... , and Vatsalyapatha.

His novel Bandaya gracefully talks about the working of the trade unions, which won him the Kendra Sahitya Academy Award in1986 and the Karnataka Sahitya Akademy Award in 1987. He also received Maharashtra Shasan Puraskar for ‘Bandaya’ in 1990. Despite being a man of few words, Vyasaraya Ballal was well-respected for his work in the literary field. His work includes 100 short stories, more than 25 books, politics, two plays, and children’s books. His writings primarily focus on the importance of Kannada learning and the Kannada medium. He was widely acclaimed for two of his novels, ‘Bandaya’ and ‘ Manjari Manjari is a Hindi TV serial that aired on the cha >> Read More... ,’ while the novel ‘Uttarayana’ is considered his best work. Vyasaraya Ballal lived in Mumbai for five decades and made notable contributions to Akashvani-Mumbai with his short stories.

Vyasaraya Ballal was an eminent member of Karnataka Sangha in Mumbai and lent his hand to the columns in the dailies. Many of his works had been translated into Gujarati, Malayalam, Hindi, Marathi, and English. Throughout his journey, he received several awards, including Karnataka Sahitya Akademi Award for ‘Naanobba Bharathiya Pravasi’ in 1988, Karnataka Sahitya Akademi Honorary Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1983, Gadyabhaskara Award in 1996, B. M. Shrikanthayya Award in 1995, A. N. Krishnarao Award in 2000, Niranjana Award in 2000, and Masti Award in 2004. Vyasaraya Ballal lived for 84 years and died on January 30, 2008, in Bangalore, Karnataka.