Malayalam poet KG Sankara Pillai conferred Gangadhar National Award, 2021

Eminent Malayalam poet, K G Sankara Pillai was on Tuesday conferred with the prestigious Gangadhar National Award for poetry-2021 by Sambalpur University on the occasion of its 56th foundation day.

The award carries Rs 1 lakh, a shawl, a citation and a memento.

Named after Odisha's famous poet Gangadhar Meher, the award is given to a poet of national repute every year during the foundation day function of the university. The prestigious award was instituted by the university in the year 1989. However, the university started conferring the award from 1991.

Receiving the award, Pillai said, poetry arises from a deeper sense of justice, and a deeper sense of history. When a social system starts to perform fascism, no doubt, poetry of that social system brings out the resistance force from within to respond, he said.

Pillai said, "I am deeply impressed by the range of themes and styles in the work of Gangadhar Meher. He excelled both in traditional and narrative poetry of the epic style and modern lyrical poetry with its emphasis on intimate, personal emotions. He was a visionary, who shaped the course of Odia literature and enriched Indian literature with progressive and idealistic portrayal of human life.".

Odisha’s Higher Education minister Rohit Pujari attended the meeting as the chief guest while vice-chancellor of the Central Tribal University of Andhra Pradesh, T V Kattimani attended the event as the chief speaker.

The meeting was presided over by vice-chancellor of Sambalpur University, Bidhu Bhusan Mishra.