Gateway Lit Fest Honors Khandekar's 'Yayati' on its 50th Jnanpith Anniversary

Mumbai’s Gateway LitFest, which will be held on March 1-2 at the Convocation Hall, Mumbai University Fort Campus, will organise a session to commemorate the golden jubilee of first Jnanpith Award in Marathi won by Vishnu Sakharam Khandekar’s novel ‘Yayati’ in 1974.

The discussion on the novel, ‘Impressions on Yayati’, will be held on the second day (March 2) at the 7^th session of the festival, which will be led by Jnanpith Award winner of 2022 Damodar Mauzo, and renowned writer and translator Prof Sachin C Ketkar.

'Yayati' is a Marathi-language mythological novel that narrates the tale of the mythical Hindu king, Yayati, from the Hindu epic, the Mahabharata. Widely regarded as Khanderkar’s masterpiece, it is considered one of the greatest works in Marathi literature. The novel has received numerous accolades, including the Sahitya Akademi Award, the Jnanapith Award, and the Maharashtra State Government Award. Translations of his works are available in several languages, including English, Hindi, Malayalam, Bengali, and Gujarati.

Expressing his thoughts on the event, Damodar Mauzo, novelist, said, “I am very glad that Gateway LitFest is organizing such an event to celebrate the golden jubilee of VS Khandekar’s Jnanpith Award of 1974. An important aspect of this award is that the Jnanpith Committee first gave the award to his novel Yayati, and later they extended the award to all his literary contributions. In that way, the writer and his whole works were honoured.”     

VS Khandekar (1898-1976) is revered as one of the greatest writers of Marathi literature. Over his nearly half-century literary career, he published 11 novels, 31 short story collections, six allegorical story collections, and 15 volumes of critical essays.

The highly anticipated Gateway LitFest (GLF) is poised to make a grand return to Mumbai on March 1st and 2nd, 2024, ending a three-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Recognized as the largest platform for Indian language writers, GLF promises to reignite literary fervor with its seventh edition. The event will feature top writers, including Jnanpith laureates and Akademi awardees, from various regional languages.