M. V. Rajadhyaksha

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Mangesh Vitthal Rajadhyaksha (Marathi: मंगेश विठ्ठल राजाध्यक्ष) (7 June 1913 – 19 April 2010) was a Marathi writer and critic. He studied at Elphinstone College in Mumbai, where he won the prestigious Wordsworth Prize for the best student in English literature.

Rajadhyaksha later taught English literature at Elphinstone College, Gujarat College (Ahmedabad) and Rajaram College (Kolhapur).^[1] He also served on several prestigious committees, including the National Book Trust and the Jnanpith Trust that gives the Jnanpith Award.

He was closely involved with Abhiruchi, a Marathi literary journal that was the launching pad for some of the greatest writers in the post-independence era.^[2]

The Times of India reported at the time of his death: "His essays, collected in seven volumes, brought to Marathi literary criticism a rare perspicacity, candour and impatience with cant. His style was economical, precise and always lined with irony. He also coauthored a seminal history of Marathi literature with Kusumavati Deshpande. Panch Kavi, (पाच कवी) a selection of the works of five poets who represented the new and modern in poetry at the turn of the 19th century, became a literary classic. His preface to the volume remains one of the most lucidly argued pieces of literary criticism."^[2]

The Marathi daily Loksatta, in an editorial, described his death as the death of a पुराणपुरुष, and one who was a scholar in the English critical tradition as well as a Marathi intellectual.^[3]

He was the husband of the well-known Marathi writer Vijaya Rajadhyaksha.

He died on 19 April 2010 at the age of 96.