All his plans and ideas for the Mandal have now been left unfinished. It happened quite suddenly -- people who spoke to Ashtikar just days before his death did not notice any trace of fatigue or any hint of things to come.

While he was at the helm of affairs at the Mandal, he tried to change the system of disbursing grants and speed up various proposals which had been pending for years. And in doing that, he was not afraid to take on the luminaries of the literary world.

Therefore Dr Ashtikar was better known for his hard-hitting honesty. But that in no way diminishes his contribution to the literary world. An eminent playwright, he had penned 11 plays and several one-act plays. His musical, Savla Gondhal has had over a thousand shows all over the state. He is also known for his other plays viz, Teen IsamTera Aane, Maaza Raghu Bolala and Pratyekala Jora Chavato. Jevha Mala Vinchu Chavla was one of his better-known one-act plays.

He was the dean of the Arts Faculty and the head of the Sanskrit department of the Nagpur University. His death at the age of 70 has deprived the Mandal of a man who had both vision and the drive to move ahead.