Govind Vināyak Karandikar (Marathi: गोविंद विनायक करंदीकर), better known as Vindā Karandikar (Marathi: विंदा करंदीकर), was a well-known Marathi poet and writer. He was also an essayist, literary critic, and a translator.
He was conferred with 39th Jnanpith Award in 2003, which is the highest literary award in India. He also received some other awards for his literary work including Keshavasut Prize, Soviet Land Nehru Literary Award, Kabir Samman, and the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship in 1996.
Life and Works
Karandikar was born on August 23, 1918, at Dhalavali village in the Devgad taluka present-day Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra.
Karandikar's poetic works include Svedgangā (River of Sweat) (1949), Mrudgandha (1954), Dhrupad (1959), Jātak (1968), and Virupika (1980). Two anthologies of his selected poems, Sanhita (1975) and Adimaya (1990) were also published. His poetic works for children include Rānichā Bāg (1961), Sashyāche Kān (1963), and Pari Ga Pari (1965).
Experimentation has been a feature of Karandikar's Marathi poems. He also translated his own poems in English, which were published as "Vinda Poems" (1975). He also modernized old Marathi literature like Dnyaneshwari and Amrutānubhawa.
Besides having been a prominent Marathi poet, Karandikar has contributed to Marathi literature as an essayist, a critic, and a translator. He translated Poetics of Aristotle and King Lear of Shakespeare in Marathi.
Karandikar's collections of short essays include Sparshaachi Palvi (1958) and Akashacha Arth (1965). Parampara ani Navata (1967), is a collection of his analytical reviews.
Karandikar was the only third Marathi writer to have won Dnyanpeeth award In 14 Jan 2006 Marathi poet maestro called Ashtadarshan (poetry), after Vishnu Sakharam Khandekar (1974) and Vishnü Vāman Shirwādkar (Kusumagraj) (1987).
Vinda Karindikar died on 14 March 2010 at the age of 91 in Mumbai.