Chennai, May 18 (IANS): Noted Tamil writer and Sahitya Akademi award winner Ki Rajanarayanan, popularly known as Ki Ra passed away in Puducherry.

Rajanarayanan was 98 and is survived by two sons.

Puducherry Lt Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan paid her homage to Rajanarayanan's body at Lawspet Government quarters.

Condoling Rajanarayanan's death, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin said the school where Rajanarayanan studied in Tamil Nadu will be renovated without altering its design and a hall will be built housing the writer's works, his photographs so that students and people can know about him.

Rajanarayanan, who passed away on Monday, authored the Karisal Kaatu Sollagarathi, a dialect dictionary which set the trend for similar dialect dictionaries in other regions.

A seventh standard school drop out, Rajanarayanan began his literary career at the age of 30.

His first short story 'Mayamaana' was published in 1959. His writings on the lives of 'Karisal Bhoomi' (dry and hot land) of southern Tamil Nadu caught the reader's fancy.

The novel Gopalapurathu Makkal got him the Sahitya Akademi award in 1991.

Several other political leaders condoled Rajanarayanan's death.