🎙️Remembering SL Bhyrappa With Dr Vikram Sampath

Historian and author Dr Vikram Sampath joins Arush Tandon on What This Means to discuss the life and works of legendary author Dr Santeshivara Lingannaiah Bhyrappa, who departed the mortal realm on 24 September 2025.

Dr Sampath says: "Dr Bhyrappa was a once-in-a-lifetime colossus, breaking language divides with his works translated and read across India. He was a master craftsman with words — brave, no-nonsense, and unwilling to bow to bullying.”

Sharing his memories with Dr Bhyrappa, he says: "What I couldn’t manage to do in 18 years, Dr Bhyrappa did in one — he got four of my books translated into Kannada within a year."

Listen to the full episode here.

1. Author and co-translator of Dr Bhyrappa’s 'Matadaana' Hari Ravikumar writes: In an interview, he was asked if he held any bitterness towards society as an outcome of the vicissitudes he faced as a lad. “How could I? All the people who helped me at various stages of my boyhood and youth were also from the same society," Dr Bhyrappa replied.

Instead of bearing grudges against those who harmed and humiliated him, he cultivated gratitude towards those who nurtured him.

2. Writer and columnist Shefali Vaidya writes: When I met him in person, I expected him to be a little arrogant. After all, here was a man whose books had sold more than half a million copies, who had been translated into every major Indian language, who was hailed as Karnataka’s greatest living novelist.

3. Adithi Gurkar writes: While Kannada literature oscillated between the experimental Navya movement and the protest-oriented Bandaya school, Bhyrappa carved his own path: one that would later be positioned between the Navya and Navodaya traditions.

His approach to literature was rooted in a singular philosophy: a writer's only loyalty should be to truth, not to ideology or popularity.

Also read: Have You Set Out To Abandon The Very Fundamentals Of Basavanna‘s Teachings? By SL Bhyrappa