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in poet’s symposia were a sure betto draw many listeners in the 50s and 60s. He has brought out four collections of poems.
Greatly influenced by Puthumaippithan’s short stories, Ragunathan had been a close friend of that great writer in his last years of life. The biography of Puthumaippithan written and published in 1951 by Ragunathan is still acclaimed by critics and chroniclers as the best literary biography of a modern Tamil writer.
As the admirer and follower of Bharathis’ ideals Ragunathan has so far brought out six research works on Bharathi, including the Sahitya Akademi award winning work Bharathi kaalamum Karutthum. Ragunathan’s deep insight into the poet and his milieu and his balanced criticial analysis and pleasant style have made it a notable milestone in the history of modern Tamil literature. His work Bharathiyum Shelleyum is a pioneering work, unique by its depth and breadth in the realm of comparative studies in Tamil.
Ragunathan’s monumental work Ilangovadigal Yaar, an inter disciplinary, Marxist socio-historical analysis of the first great Tamil epic Chilappathikaaram, is regarded as a thought-provoking study of that epic. exploring many myths woven around it.
As a translator Ragunathan has distinguished himself by translating Maxim Gorky’s major novels including his Mother into Tamil and also translated into Tamil poetical form V. Mayakovsky’s epic poem ‘Lenin’. In recognition of these achievements Ragunathan was selected for the Soviet Land Nehru Award in 1965 and 1979.
Some of the short stories, poems and literary articles of Ragunathan have been translated into Malayalam, Bengali, Hindi, Czech, polish, German, Russian and English. Some of his books have been prescribed as textbooks in three universities in Tamil nadu and two outside Tamilnadu.
Three scholars have won doctoral degrees form madras University and Madurai Kamaraj University for research on Ragunatha’s work.
