Kannada lexicographer Professor Ganjam Venkatasubbaiah (107) passed away in the wee hours on Monday in Bengaluru due to age-related illnesses.
The centenarian was a celebrated Kannada grammarian, editor, writer and critic, who had compiled 12 dictionaries.
Born into a family of scholars in Ganjam village in Srirangapatna (Mandya district) on August 23, 1913, Venkatasubbaiah was a university topper (master of arts in Kannada). He began his career as a teacher at a municipal school in Mandya, taught at a high school in Davanagere and Maharaja’s College, Mysuru, before joining the Vijaya College in Bengaluru as a lecturer. He retired as the principal in 1973.
Venkatasubbaiah’s dictionaries, include an eight-volume Kannada-Kannada Nighantu (Dictionary). The compilation of his column Igo Kannada, published in Prajavani, emerged as a four-volume sociolinguistic dictionary.
Venkatasubbaiah is remembered for his work on Kannada dictionary science titled Kannada Nighantu Shastra Parichaya, which was brought out to coincide with the centenary celebration of the first Kannada dictionary authored by the German Indologist Reverend Ferdinand Kittel in 1894.
Venkatasubbaiah edited 24 literary works, translated eight important literary works from other languages and authored four children's books in Kannada. He served as the vice-president of the Lexicographical Association of India for 17 years.
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Venkatasubbaiah, who was awarded the Padma Shri in 2017, had been conferred with many prominent awards including Bhasha Samman awarded by the Sahitya Akademi; Pampa Award, the highest literary honour in Karnataka; Karnataka Rajyotsava Award; and the oldest living achiever and alumnus award by his alma mater, University of Mysore. He was honoured with the Karnataka Sahitya Academy award for his treatise Muddana Bhandara.
While Venkatasubbaiah's wife, G.V. Lakshmi, passed away in 2016 at the age of 92, the couple is survived by two sons and two daughters, grandchildren and great grandchildren.
