The
Vice President of India Shri M. Hamid Ansari presented the “26th Moorti Devi
Award” to Shri
Haraprasad Das,
one of the most influential contemporary poet and thinker in Odia Literature at
a function organized by Bharatiya Jnanpith here today. The award
consists of a Citation and a cash prize of Rs 4 Lakhs. Addressing on the occasion, the Vice President
said that Shri Haraprasad Das is amongst the most versatile literary figures in
contemporary Indian literature and his versatility and prolificacy can be
gauged from his creations. Every author and poet has a different state of mind
while writing. He opined that Bharatiya Jnanpith and the distinguished jury, chaired
by Dr. Veerappa Moily deserve full credit for an excellent choice for the
Award. He congratulated Shri Haraprasad Das for this well deserved recognition
and wished him all the best for the future.
Besides
his literary genius, Shri Haraprasad Das has been a distinguished Civil
Servant. He also served as an expert on several UN Bodies, for around 10
years. He has published until now thirteen volumes of poetry, four volumes of
literary criticism and critical thought, one volume of ethnic history, one book
of fiction and three works of translation.
The Moortidevi Award is an annual literary award in India presented by
the Bharatiya Jnanpith organization for a work which emphasizes Indian
philosophy and culture. The prize includes an amount of Rupees four Lakh, a
plaque, a statue of Saraswati, and a shawl.
1983 C.K.Nagaraja Rao -Kannada
1984 Virendra Kumar Jain -Hindi
1985 Manu Bhai Pancholi ‘Darshak' -Gujarati
1986 Kanhyaiya Lal Sethia -Rajasthani
1988 Vishnu Prabhakar -Hindi
1989 Vidya Niwas Mishra -Hindi
1990 Munishree Nagraj -Hindi
1991 Pratibha Rai -Oriya
1992 Kubernath Ray -Hindi
1993 Shyamacharan Dubey -Hindi
1994 Shivaji Sawant -Marathi
1995 Nirmal Verma -Hindi
2000 Govind Chandra Pande -Hindi
2001 Rammurti Tripathi -Hindi
2002 Yashdev Shalya -Hindi
2003 Kalyan Mal Lodha -Hindi
2004 Narayan Desai -Gujarati
2005 Rammurti Sharma -Hindi
2006 Krishna Bihari Mishra -Hindi
2007 M. Veerappa Moily -Kannada
2008 Raghuvansh -Hindi
2009 Akkitham -Malayalam
2010 Gopi Chand Narang -Urdu
2011 Gulab Kothari -Hindi
2012 Haraprasad Das -Oriya