T. S. Venkannayya

Taľaku Subbanna Venkannayya (1 October 1885 – 14 September 1939) was University of Mysore's first Kannada Professor. He was also a popular Kannada writer, translator, editor and teacher who nurtured many later Kannada littérateurs like Kuvempu, D. L. Narasimhachar, T. N. Srikantaiah, K. S. Narasimhaswamy, M. V. Seetharamaiah, C. K. Venkataramaiah, K. Venkataramappa, G. Venkatasubbiah and S. V. Parameshwara Bhatta. In fact, Kuvempu begins his book Sri Ramayana Darshanam with a two-page dedication to his teacher T. S. Venkannayya. T. S. Venkannayya translated the biography of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa from Bengali into Kannada for the first time in 1919. T. S. Venkannayya along with D. V. Gundappa, V. Seetharamaiah, B. M. Srikantaiah and T. N. Srikantaiah were at the forefront of the Kannada Movement from 1920s onwards and were instrumental in the founding of Kannada Sahitya Parishat (Bangalore) and Kannada Sangha (Kannada Literary Association) at Central College, Bangalore and Maharaja College, Mysore. T. S. Venkannayya was responsible for the organising of the 1931 Kannada Sahitya Sammelan (literary summit) at Mysore.