Kota Shivaram Karanth (10 October 1902 – 9 December 1997) was an Indian polymath, who was a novelist in Kannada language, playwright and conservationist. Ramachandra Guha called him the “Rabindranath Tagore of Modern India, who has been one of the finest novelists-activists since independence”. He was the third writer to be decorated with the Jnanpith Award for Kannada, the highest literary honor conferred in India.

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