Chennai, Dec 7 (IANS): Artist, writer and Padma Shri awardee Manohar Devadoss passed away in Chennai on Wednesday morning. He was 85.

Manohar Devadoss, a Padma Shri awardee in 2020, fondly known by the name Mano, was an artist who used pen ink for drawings and had brought out hand-illustrated greeting cards at Christmas and New Year. These cards were sold and the proceeds were given to charity.

He had made sketches of Madurai - his hometown and Chennai, the city where he lived, and these sketches are considered prized possessions by those who own them.

Devadoss had written several books and had also done the illustrations for these books. He was a chemical engineer but an irreversible eye condition had made him give up that work. He continued with his passion for writing and sketching using ink as he had lost his colour vision and could see the contrast with the black line on the white paper better.

His wife Mahema passed away in 2008 after ailing for thirty years due to a road accident in which she was paralyzed from the neck down. He had formed a charitable trust, Mahema Devadoss Endowment, and supported medical treatment for treatable blindness among the rural population.

His daughter Sujatha Manohar Devadoss is in the United States and his family members told IANS that the funeral will be held on Friday after her arrival.