After prolonged illness, the 97-year-old Vishnu Prabhakar, a famous Hindi literateur, died in a hospital in New Delhi on Saturday.

Prabhakar, who’s survived by two sons and two daughters, had been suffering from cancer for last one and half year.

Prabhakar had decided to donate his body to Organ Retrieval Banking Organisation, a division of All India Institute of Medical sciences (AIIMS) at New Delhi for good cause of best use of his corpse for medical research.

His departure is a big loss for the literary world. His great books have added more to the golden Hindi literature.

Born on January 29, 1912, Vishnu Prabhakar was honoured with the Padma Bhushan and Sahitya Akademi awards.

He also worked as Drama director in All India Radio from 1955 to 1957.

Some of his legendary works comprise Awara, Masiha, Pankheen, Jane Anjane, Dhalti Raat, Swapnamayi, Nav Prabhat and Doctor.

He was awarded with the Sahitya Akademi Award for his novel Ardhanarishvara (The Androgynous God or Shiva).

He will always be remembered for his writings as well as for his last wish of body donation.