Pune: Renowned Marathi litterateur Shivaji Govind Sawant, the author of 'Mrutyunjay', one of the widely acclaimed books on the life of Karna from epic Mahabharat, died of a cardiac arrest at a private nursing home at Margao in Goa on September 18, his family sources said. He was 62.

Sawant was admitted to the Cardiac Grace Nursing Hospital at 09:30 hours (IST) after he felt uneasiness in the chest. He did not respond to the treatment and died of acute heart attack at 11:30 hours, Dr S V Ghode, who attended on the author, said.

Sawant, who was contesting the election for the post of president of the 76th Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan scheduled to be held at Karad in January, had gone to Goa for some work.

Born on August 31, 1940, in Aajara village in Kolhapur district, Sawant started his career as a teacher in Kolhapur and later became one of the most prolific writers in Marathi.

His voluminous book 'Mrutyunjay' had 23 editions in Marathi and has been translated in Hindi, English, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu and Bangla.

The book, which is known in Marathi as a 'Mahakadambari' was recommended for Nobel Prize in Stockholm in 1990. It also won several awards including Special Maharashtra State Award in 1967 for best literature, Sahitya Academy Award of Gujarat government for the translated work in 1990, Central Academy Award in 1992, Gadima Puraskar in 2001.

Sawant also penned another well-acclaimed book 'Chhava' on Chhatrapati Shivaji's son Sambhaji.

He is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter.

His body will be brought to Pune on September 18 night, sources said.

PTI