Telugu poet Nikhileshwar wins Sahitya Academy Award for 'Agniswaasa'
Noted Telugu poet Nikhileshwar has won the Sahitya Academy Award 2020 for his poetry collection ‘Agniswaasa’.
By Newsmeter Network Published on 13 March 2021 11:19 AM IST
Hyderabad: Noted Telugu poet Nikhileshwar has won the Sahitya Academy Award 2020 for his poetry collection 'Agniswaasa'.
Union Ministry of Culture on Friday announced the annual Sahitya Akademi Awards for outstanding contributions in the field of literature. A total of 20 awards have been announced for the year 2020.
Born as Kumbham Yadavreddy, Nikhileshwar is recognized in the literary world as the Digambara revolutionary poet in Telugu.
Born on August 11, 1938, at Yadadri Bhuvanagiri in the Veeravalli district of Telangana, he served in the Army and the Air Force before starting his literary journey. He also served as sub-editor of a Golconda Magazine. An alumnus of Osmania University, his work has received numerous awards.
Along with Nikhileshwar, Kanneganti Anasuya won the Children's Literature Award in Telugu. She received the award for her collection of short stories `Friends'.
Endluri Manas also received the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar for her short story collection `Milinda'.
Arundhathi Subramaniam won the award for her poetry collection `When God is a Traveller' in English. The others who received the award in poetry include Harish Meenakshi (Gujarati), Anamika (Hindi), RS Bhaskar (Konkani), Irungbam Deven (Manipuri), Rupchand Hansda (Santali), and Nikhileswar (Telugu).
Congress leader M Veerappa Moily also received the award for his epic poem `Sri Bahubali Ahimsadigvijayam' in Kannada.
Other winners included novelists Nanda Khare (Marathi), Maheshchandra Sharma Gautam (Sanskrit), Imaiyam (Tamil), and Sri Hussain-ul-Haque (Urdu).
The Akademi named Apurba Kumar Saikia (Assamese), Dharanidhar Owari (Bodo), Hiday Koul Bharti (Kashmiri), Kamalkant Jha (Maithili) and Gurdev Singh Rupana (Punjab) winners in the short stories section. Gian Singh (Dogri) and Jetho Lalwani (Sindhi) received the award for their plays, while Mani Shankar Mukhopadhyay (Bengali) got it for his memoir.
"The books were selected on the basis of recommendations made by a jury of three members in the concerned languages in accordance with the procedure laid down for the purpose," said the Akademi.
The award includes an engraved copper plaque, a shawl, and an amount of Rs 1 lakh. It will be presented at a function later.
