Bangalore:
Veteran Kannada poet GS Shivarudrappa died at his residence in Bangalore today. He was 87.
Mr Shivarudrappa was chosen as the "Rashtrakavi" by the Karnataka government on Rajyotsava Day on November 1, 2006. He was also awarded the Central Sahitya Akademi Award, the Karnataka Sahitya Academy Award and the Soviet Land Nehru Award.
Born in Shimoga district in 1926, he worked as a Kannada professor in Mysore and was a very prominent figure in the Kannada literary world. He is survived by wife, two sons and a daughter.
Mr Shivarudrappa, who has made a lasting contribution to Kannada literature, has published 13 collections of poems and several prose and research works, besides travelogues.
Describing his death as an "irreparable loss" to the state and Kannada literary world, Chief Minister
Siddaramaiah announced a two-day state mourning from today. All government offices and
educational institutions will remain closed tomorrow.