Yakshagana Quotes

There is a highly imaginative line-drawing of Dr. Shivarama Karanth, drawn by his friend Dr. K.K.Hebbar. The great artist, K.K.Hebbar, gives Karanth in this portrait four faces, five hands, and a well-developed, proportionate body. While one hand of Karanth, standing in a dancer’s poise, touches the moon, another hand holds a quill; and there are books held in the other three hands. A long silk scarf is tied tightly round the waist of the dancer, whose legs stand firmly on the ground. This drawing reveals, as no words can, the indomitable courage, strong determination, and the lofty ideals of one who, during a period of about eight decades, wrote 45 novels, 97 plays, nine encyclopaedias, one dictionary, six travelogues, thirteen critical works on art, eight works on science, two autobiographies the second one in three volumes, 231 tales for children, four short-story collections, two poetry-volumes, and eight volumes of stray articles. In addition to such prodigious output, he was a painter, Yakshagana artist, and an environmentalist. Future generations may rightly find it difficult to believe that one man could do and achieve as much as Shivarama Karanth did.