O.V. Vijayan

O.V. Vijayan (born July 2, 1930, Vilayanchathanur, Kerala, British India [India]—died March 29, 2005, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India) was an Indian cartoonist, pioneering novelist and short-story writer, and a leading figure in Malayalam literature. In addition to cartoons and journalistic articles on such subjects as politics and the environment, he produced several novels and a number of short stories.

Vijayan graduated from Government Victoria College, Palakkad, and received a master’s degree in English literature from Presidency College, Madras (now Chennai). He started his career as a lecturer, but in 1958 he left Kerala for Delhi to pursue an interest in the world of cartoons. Initially he joined Shankar’s Weekly (1948–75), a magazine founded by the legendary political cartoonist P. Shankar Pillai. Subsequently, Vijayan became a staff cartoonist at the The Patriot. He also worked as a journalist with the The Hindu and the The Statesman.

Though Vijayan wrote on a range of subjects, his best-known work remains Khasakkinte itihasam (1969, serialized in 1968; The Legends of Khasak). His other works include Dharmapuranam (1985; The Saga of Dharmapuri), Madhuram Gayathi, Gurusagaram (1991), and Pravachakante Vazhi (1992).