MUMBAI (AFP).- R.K. Laxman, the renowned Indian cartoonist whose sketches appeared on the front page of The Times of India for more than five decades, died Monday aged 94.

Laxman's cartoon strip satirised Indian life and politics through the eyes of the "common man", a silent observer who he said "stands for all Indians".

He suffered multiple organ failure after being admitted to hospital on January 17, his doctors told the Press Trust of India news agency.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the tributes, saying "India will miss you".

"We are grateful to you for adding the much needed humour in our lives & always bringing smiles on our faces," Modi tweeted.

Laxman was born on October 24, 1921 in the southern city of Mysore and began sketching when he was only five.

India gave him the Padma Vibhushan, the country's second highest civilian award, in 2005, and in 2001 an eight-foot-tall bronze statue of the "common man" was unveiled in the southern city of Pune.

The bespectacled cartoonist had stopped drawing a few years earlier due to ill health.





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