Mudnakudu Chinnaswamy was born in 1954, in a small town in Karnataka State, South India. In spite of his underprivileged origin, he achieved an education which culminated in two Master’s degrees, one in commerce and the other in the literature of his native language, Kannada. He is an officer of the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation, and has become widely known as an important poet of the new generation in Kannada. He has published 18 books, 5 of which are poetry collections.Chinnaswamy belongs to the lowest layer in Hindu society, called in the past “untouchable” (dalit).