K. V. Narayana

K. V. Narayana died in Bengaluru on 6 November 2026 at the age of 78. The Hindu reported that he passed away at his residence and was said to have died in his sleep. Other Karnataka outlets described a sudden late-night health crisis at home in Yelahanka, hospital admission and death despite treatment. He is survived by his wife H. S. Shrimati and two children. He had been due to speak that Friday at the release of a short-story collection and to mentor a Vichara Kammata workshop at Kuppalli from 13 November on Shivaram Karanth's novel Marali Mannige. Chief Minister D. K. Shivakumar, Union minister H. D. Kumaraswamy and BJP state president B. Y. Vijayendra were among those who publicly condoled his death.

Kampalapura Veeranna Narayana was born on 20 October 1948 in Kampalapura, Piriyapattana taluk, Mysore district, Karnataka. He received primary education in his birthplace, pre-university science at National College in Bengaluru, and a B.Sc. at Yuvaraja College, Mysore. After a B.Ed. he taught in a high school. A 1972 summer school in linguistics in Mysore drew him into language study. He took an M.A. in Kannada literature at Central College, Bangalore University, where he met H. S. Shrimati, later a noted feminist writer and his wife. Under G. S. Shivarudrappa at the Kannada Adhyayana Kendra he completed a Ph.D. on Anandavardhana's Dhvanyaloka.

Narayana taught literature, literary criticism and linguistics with a scientific bent. He was a visiting professor at Stony Brook University in 1984 and a senior fellow at the Central Institute of Indian Languages in Mysore. In 1993 he joined Kannada University, Hampi, as a Kannada professor, later serving as registrar, dean and acting vice-chancellor and helping shape the university's early administration until retirement in 2007. He chaired the Kuvempu Bhasha Bharathi Pradikara for the Government of Karnataka, redirecting its publishing and translation work, including Constituent Assembly debates in Kannada and the series Karnatakada Samajika Arthika Chintanegalu. His Karnataka Odu workshops invited readers to approach Kannada culture from within. Major titles include Beru, Kanda, Chiguru; Bhasheya Sutthamuttha and Matthe Bhasheya Sutthamuttha; Kannada Jagattu Ardhashatamaana; Nammodane Namma Nudi; Dhvanyalokada Oodu; Vyaktinamagalu: Swarupa Mattu Visleshane; and Nudigala Alivu, which won the 2024 Central Sahitya Akademi Award. He also wrote the play Huttava Badidare. Awards included the Karnataka Sahitya Akademi honorary award (2007), the G. S. S. Award for literary criticism (2007) and the Karnataka Rajyotsava Award for literature (2010).

Narayana married H. S. Shrimati, a feminist writer he met while studying in Bengaluru. They had two children. He lived in Bengaluru, including in Yelahanka in later years. Friends described Kannada as a way of life and thinking for him, summed up in the long-standing axiom Kannadigalu Innu Saaku. He kept writing and mentoring into 2026, including recent books reintroducing Kuvempu to new readers.

Narayana is remembered as a linguist and critic who insisted that Kannada communities generate knowledge on their own terms. Through teaching at Bangalore University and Kannada University, Hampi, through Karnataka Odu and through the Kuvempu Bhasha Bharathi Pradikara, he linked academic linguistics with public cultural work. Nudigala Alivu and his Sahitya Akademi recognition in 2024 capped decades of writing on language, style and Kannada modernity. Colleagues such as critic K. Y. Narayanaswamy stressed that for him Kannada was a way of seeing the world.