Bangalore, Aug 23: Mourners in large numbers today paid their last respects to Jnanpith award winner and Kannada literary giant U R Ananthamurthy who was cremated with full state honours here today.
Amid vedic chants, a team of 15 priests performed the last rites according to Bramhinical traditions with his son Sharat lighting the funeral pyre at "Kalagrama" in "Jnana Bharati" campus of Bangalore University.
Ananthamurthy's mortal remains wrapped in tricolor were given gun salute by police, with his wife Esther, daughter Anuradha, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, state ministers, political figures and literary and film personalities in attendance.
The last rites were conducted as per Hindu traditions fulfiling the wishes of Ananthamurthy, who was equally brilliant in Kannada and English writing.
He died of multiple health complications at a private hospital here yesterday aged 82, ten days after he was admitted for fever and infection.
Ananthamurthy, who burst on the literary scene in 1965 with the controversial novel 'Samskara' that earned him the tag as a scathing critic of Brahminism, its superstitions and hypocrisies, rose to become one of the best writers in the country widely acclaimed by fans and critics alike.
Earlier, hundreds of people paid their last respects to Ananthamurthy, who combined in him a writer, a thinker who questioned well held beliefs, playwright, poet, novelist and a public intellectual who dared to speak out vociferously on what he believed was right on social and political issues.
His body was kept at the premises of Ravindra Kalakshetra for people to pay homage before being taken to "Kalagrama" in a procession in a flower bedecked vehicle.
Christian and Muslim prayers were also conducted for Ananthamurthy, who was known for his strong beliefs in secularim and pluralism and questioned fundamentalism, particularly majoritarianism, often landing in controversies.
State political leaders, Union Ministers Ananth Kumar and D V Sadananda Gowda, literary and film figures like Girish Karnad, M S Satyu, Girish Kasaravalli, Nagabharana and K S Nissar Ahmed paid their last respects to the departed writer.
Karnataka government has declared a three-day state mourning and its offices and educational institutions were closed today as a mark of respect to Ananthamurthy, whose literary works broke new grounds in Kannada literature.
The kidnapped schoolboy was rescued by the police and reunited with his parents. Son of a gift shop owner from Basavanagudi area in Bengaluru, Chirag has reportedly told police that decided to make some quick money to spend on cricket betting and gambling after learning kidnap tricks from the ‘Crime Patrol’. According to police, Chirag reached a private school around 3pm on Tuesday on a Bounce rental bike and zeroed in on a fourth standard student who was walking out of school. He told the boy he was his father's friend and that he required help to search for a relative who had gone missing. The boy believed Chirag and rode pillion on the bike. Chirag then engaged the boy in conversation and learnt about his father's business and got his mobile phone number. He then made a call to the boy's father, demanded Rs 5 lakh and warned him against approaching cops. However, the boy's father alerted Cottonpet police and special teams were formed to crack the case. While Cottonpet inspector Venkatesh TC's squad verified CCTV footage in and around the school, Chamarajpet inspector BG Kumaraswamy's team started tracking the suspect's mobile phone movements. An hour later, the suspect's location was traced to a hotel on the Lavelle Road-St Mark's Road stretch. Police rushed there, rescued the boy and arrested Chirag.
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