Ekkundi and Gangadhar V. Chittal from Hanehalli were classmates at Willingdon.

Literature in the year 1944, Subbanna Ekkundi joined the Anandashram High School, Bankikodla as a teacher and retired as Head Master of that institute in 1977.

In 1992, Ekkundi was awarded the Sahitya Akademi and the Karnataka Sahitya Akademi awards for his outstanding poetical work Bakulada Hoovugalu in Kannada.

His Ubhaya Bharati concerns the famous debate between the Hindu philosophers Adi Shankara and Mandana Mishra.

[clarification needed] Kannada University at Hampi conferred a PhD degree to a student on a thesis entitled S. R. Ekkundi....[clarification needed] An anthology of his complete poems was released in the year 2008 in a book titled Bellaki Hindu.