Kasargod, Aug 9: Kannada litterateur Kayyara Kinhanna Rai, who recently celebrated his 100th birth day, breathed his last on Sunday at his at his residence at Badiadka in Kasaragod district.
As a social activist, he championed for integrating the region around Kasaragod north of river Chandragiri with Karnataka, a longstanding aspiration of Kannada-speaking linguistic minority after the 1957 State reorganisation.
As a multi-linguist, Mr. Kinhanna Rai translated ace poet Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer’s Malayalam Sahitya Charitram and Kumaran Asan’s famed works such as Karuna , Chandala Bhikshuki and Chindavishtayaya Sita into Kannada.
He authored anthologies of poems and collection of prose lessons in Kannada and Tulu. His four works on grammar are considered as referral books in Kannada.
While working as a Mangaluru-based journalist, he established a warm relation with litterateurs Vaikom Muhammad Basheer, S.K. Pottekkatt, Takazhi Sivasankara Pillai and Urdu scholar T. Ubaid.
Having actively taken part in the Quite India Movement, his works gave impetus to the freedom struggle in the region.
Kinhanna Rai had officiated as the Badiadkka Panchayat president for 16 long years. A national award-winning teacher, he had a long stint with Perdala Navjeevan School. He is also a recipient of the Karnataka Sahitya Academy award.
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