Excelsior Correspondent
NASHIK, June 19: Highly acclaimed film and literary personality Ved Rahi became the first Dogri litterateur to receive prestigious Kusumagraj Rashtriya Sahitya Puruskar of Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University.
The award carried a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh, a memento and a citation and presented by well-known Marathi literary figure Shyam Manohar, a Sahitya Akademi awardee.
The citation paid rich tributes to the literary genius of Rahi and mentioned his multiple pursuits and achievements in film and television industry and Dogri, Hindi, Urdu, Persian and English literature.
Rahi has been recipient of several honours in J&K and Maharashtra. He is also a Sahitya Akademi award winner.
It was for the first time that Dogri figured in the list of Kusumagraj award which has so far been given in Kannada, Hindi, Malayalam, Gujarati, Punjabi and English.
The award is instituted in the memory of late Vishnu Vaman Shirwadkar, a Jnanpith Award winner and former chairperson of the Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan, popularly known by his pen name Kusumagraj, virtually a household name in Maharashtra, an eminent humanist, Marathi poet, playwright, novelist and short-story writer who wrote of freedom, justice and upliftment of the deprived.
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