The President of India, Pranab Mukherjee presented the 24th Saraswati Sammaan for the year 2014 to Dr. M Veerappa Moily, Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha).
He received the award for his Epic ‘Sri Ramayana Mahanveshanam’ written in Kannada. In his magnificent composition of 43,000 lines inspired by the original epic of Valmiki, Dr. Moily has shared with us his unique insight into contemporary situations.
The Saraswati Samman is an annual award for outstanding prose or poetry literary works in any 22 Indian language listed in Schedule VIII of the Constitution of India. It is named after an Indian goddess of learning and is considered to be among the highest literary awards in India.
The Saraswati Samman was instituted in 1991 by the K. K. Birla Foundation. It consists of Rs 10 lakh, a citation and a plaque. Candidates are selected from literary works published in the previous ten years by a panel that included scholars and former award winners.
The inaugural award was given to Harivanshrai ‘Bachchan’ for his four volume autobiography, Kya Bhooloon Kya Yaad Karoon, Needa Ka Nirman Phir, Basere Se Door and Dashdwar se Sopan Tak.
