Former AIKP president R K Rao Passes away

Mangalore:Raghunath Krishna Rao, 91, popularly known as R.K. Rao, former president of the All-India Konkani Parishad, died on Sunday. He had been admitted to a private nursing home with cardiac problems, according to a press release issued by K. Gokuldas Prabhu, secretary of the parishad here on Friday.

Prof. Rao, who was a qualified homoeopath, was imprisoned for participating in the freedom struggle. He retired as professor of Hindi at St. Albert's College, Kochi.

Prof. Rao established the Konkani Language Institute in 1975. The institute published a collection of Konkani folk songs from Kerala compiled by him. The Central Sahitya Akademi published his translation of the "History of Malayalam Literature" into Konkani. He won the Sahitya Akademi award in 1991 for translating the Malayalam classic Randingazhi. He also translated the ancient Tamil classic Thirukkural and the famous Malayalam bhakti poem "Jnanappana."