Sahitya Akademi announces National Awards for Dogri, Kashmiri

Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 20: Sahitya Akademi New Delhi, the national body for literature, today announced annual awards at the end of meeting of executive board at New Delhi. The awards were announced in 24 scheduled languages of India.
In Dogri language the main award for creative writing has been conferred upon Late Bal Krishan Bhoura for his book of poetry ‘Tim Tim Tare’. The national award for translation in Dogri award has been bagged by Prof Shashi Pathania for ‘Namen Yugai de Waris’, a translation of Sardar Mohinder Singh Sarna’s anthology of Punjabi short stories.
Yash Raina, a Dogri writer from Rataal, remote area of Ramnagar, has been awarded Yuva Puruskar for his book of poetry titled ‘Do Kande’.
The award in Kashmiri has been given to Makhan Lal Kanwal for his poetry collection “Yeth Angnas Manz”. Abdul Ahad Hajini has bagged the translation award in Kashmiri for his work “Tyoth Pazar”. The Yuva Puruskar in Kashmiri has gone to young poet and critic Farooq Shaheen for his book “Gash-e-Malar”.
Earlier to these awards in Dogri, the award for Children Literature had been bagged by Bal Krishan for his Dogri book for children titled ‘Dikkho Te Sikkho’.
Sahitya Akademi’s main awards for creative literature comprising of cash prize of rupees one lakh, a memento and a citation, will be given in national level function at New Delhi in the month of February 2013.
The translation award and the Yuva Puruskar comprising of cash prize of rupees fifty one thousand, a memento and a citation each, shall be given away in near future.
Talking to EXCELSIOR Prof Shashi Pathania, the winner of translation award, expressing her happiness over the honor given by national academy, said that translations are the need of the hour to enlarge the ambit of Dogri readers as well as leadership.
Prof Pathania, former HoD, Dept. of Dogri, University of Jammu, has 24 years experience of active research covering grammar and linguistics. A member of number of academic and professional bodies, she has authored more than 80 research papers. Her publications included Dogri Sahitya Ch Yug-Chetna, collection of articles on literary criticism, ‘Namen Yugai De Waris’, Dogri translation of a collection of Punjabi short stories by S. Mohinder Singh Sarna, the book for which she has been honoured with the national award for translation in Dogri.