T. R. Subba Rao

T. R. Subba Rao (1920–1984) (Taluku Ramaswami Subba Rao (), popularly known as TaRaSu) was a novelist and a scholar in Kannada language. He is considered as a harbinger of the Navya movement of Kannada literature. He is well known for some of his novels like Durgashtamana, which won him the Sahitya Akademi award posthumously in 1985.

Early life

TaRaSu was born on 21 April 1920 in a town called Malebennur in the Karnataka state of India. His father Ramaswamaiah was a lawyer in the town of Harihar and his mother was Seethamma. His ancestors were from the village of Taluku in the Chitradurga district of Karnataka. He wrote his first story called Puttana Chendu (Putta's ball) to win a bet against his uncle T. S. Venkannaiah. (T.S. Venkannaiah was an extraordinary personality who made self-less contribution to Kannada language through upliftment of many prominent authors). When he was 17 years old, he joined the Indian freedom movement and went around the villages in the Chitradurga district, singing patriotic songs and giving speeches for independence. He was arrested and jailed when he was giving one of the speeches in Bagur village.

Fearing that his son would lose out on education by joining the freedom movement, Ramaswamaiah admitted his son to the National School in Bangalore....
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