Born in Melige village in Thirthahalli taluk on December 21, 1932 had his early education in Durvasamatha Sanskrit school. He had his later education in Thirthahalli and Mysore. After doing his post graduation in English literature he went to England for higher studies. He joined the University of Mysore in 1970 as a lecturer and later on became a Professor. He has shouldered many important responsibilities and handled assignments. He has served as the Vice-Chancellor of Mahatma Gandhi University at Kottayam, Kerala. He also served as the Chairman of the National Book Trust and as the Chairman of the Kendra Sahitya Academy.

Anantha Murthy is not only a well known author but also an orator. He has traveled widely around the globe and has the honour of being a visiting Professor of many Universities in India and abroad. He has served on many important committees as Member and Chairman. He has interviewed many celebrities for television and documentaries.

CONTRIBUTIONS

He started his literary career in 1955 with his collection of short stories entitled 'Endendhigu Mugiyada Kathe' ( A never ending story).

'Mowni',
'Prashne',
'Akasha mathu Bekku'
'Samskara' which created waves in the Kannada literaray circles. It was made into a movie of the same name and was crowned with many awards. It has been translated into Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil, Urdu, Marathi, Oriya, Gujarathi and Konkani languages of India. It has been translated into English, French, Russian, Hungarian, German and Kazak.

'Bharathipura',
'Avasthe'
'Bhava'.
Collection of essays include 'Prajne mathu Parisara',
'Poorvapara'
'Samakshama prabandha'.
He is bringing out a quarterly magazine namely 'Rujuvathu'.
His other works are 'Avahan' (drama) and '15 padyagalu', 'Mithuna', 'Ajjana Hegala Sukkugalu' (collection of poems).
He was impressed by the social leader Shanthaveri Gopala gowda and Ram Manohar Lohia and Mahatma Gandhi.

AWARDS AND HONOURS

1997 Jnanapeetha award
1994 Rajyothsava award
1984 Sahitya academy
1983 Best short story writer
Commonwealth fellowship and was awarded the Ph.D in 1966 for his thesis on "English and Comparative literature"