Eminent Marathi biographer, historian and writer Dr Yeshwant Dinkar Phadke died of cardiac arrest on Friday. He was 77. Known in literary circles as “YaDi” , Phadke was watching a Marathi play at Shivaji Mandir, Dadar along with wife when he complained of uneasiness and was rushed to the Sushrusha Hospital. He died on the way.

Phadke was born on January 3, 1931 at Solapur and studied at Haribhau Devkaran High School and

DAV College, Solapur. He turned to writing during his schooldays and started writing for Sangram newspaper. He took his postgraduate degree from the University of Pune before turning a professional writer.

Phadke wrote 62 books, including nine in English. He wrote books on R D Karve, Lokmanya Tilak, Keshavrao Jedhe, Vir Savarkar, Vishnushastri Chiplunkar, Subash Chandra Bose, Gopal Ganesh Agarkar and Babasaheb Ambedkar.

He turned to writing history of Maharashtra and wrote a thesis on Congress and the movement for a united Maharashtra. He taught political science and administration from 1954 to 1966. Later, he taught in the Mumbai University till 1980. He was a professor of social science in Tata Institute of Social Sciences till 1991.

His books included five volumes on Maharashtra of the 20th century.