Twenty four eminent authors writing in as many Indian languages were felicitated by the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Akademi of Letters, at its annual Festival of Letters that began here today.
Establishing the objective of conferring these awards, Akademi President Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari emphasised the importance of literature as a medium to give voice to the unheard sections of society.
"Sahitya maun ko mukhar karta hai, sannate ko shabd deta hai (The literature imparts voice to the mute, accords sounds to the silence)," he said at the event, which marked the beginning of the week-long festival. The Akademi completes 60 years of existence on March 12.
The literary works have been written in 24 Indian languages and included English, Hindi, Bengali, Urdu, Sanskrit, Bodo, Kashmiri, Manipuri, Nepali among others.
Congratulating the contingent of authors, Tiwari upheld the role of a writer in the society, and explained how his art of writing distinguishes him from an ordinary man.
"We can see things, we can feel things, but the problem lies in our failure to articulate those feelings. A writer expresses those emotions through his writings," he said while dubbing writers as "Lok ki Awaz (the voice of society)."
The Akademi which was established in 1954 awarded these writers a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh each for their "outstanding books of literary merit."
Hindi writer Ramesh Chandra Shah, English poet Adil Jussawalla, Marathi author Jayant Vishnu Naralikar, Malayalam writer Subhash Chandra and URdu poet and writer Munawwar Rana are among the familar names.
Jnanpith awardee Kedarnath Singh was present on the occasion as the chief guest.
Highlights of the festival include a Writers' Meet on day two in which the award winning authors will speak about their creative experiences. This year's Samvatsar lecture has been scheduled to be delivered by Ashis Nandy.
It is also organising a programme on the occasion titled 'Purvottari' to provide a national platform to the writers and scholars from the Northeast region on March 13 and 'spin-a-tale', a programme specially designed for children with story-telling and poetry-writing competitions.
The festival is set to continue till March 14 and will see Over 170 writers and scholars participating.
