Veteran rural storyteller and novelist Vyankatesh Digambar Madgulkar was born in Madgul, Sangli district. Although he did not have much formal education, he contributed to Marathi literature with his extraordinary talent. He participated in the freedom struggle at a young age. Even though he did not have formal education, his literary study was extensive due to his hobby of reading. After learning English, he also read a lot of western literature. Madgulkar was also very fond of painting. He had also gone to Kolhapur for getting trained in 'painting'. But at the age of 19 his story won a prize. This inspired him to pursue writing as his career. In 1955, he joined the Pune division of 'All India Radio', where he managed the rural division for forty years. During that period, he wrote extensively. Madgulkar wrote eight novels, two hundred stories, forty plays and some Folk dramas. He translated some English books into Marathi. His stories have been translated in Danish, German, Japanese, Russian and English. His novel 'Sattantar' received the 'Sahitya Akademi' award in the year 1983. He also chaired the 'Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya' held at Ambejogai in the same year.