BENGALURU: Former Karnataka chief minister Veerappa Moily has been bestowed with the Sahitya Akademi award for his epic poem, Sri Bahubali Ahimsadigvijayam, in Kannada. The veteran Congress leader, expressing happiness over recognition for his work, told The New Indian Express: “This is my third poem based on our great epics.
It took me three-and-a-half years to complete it. This poem captures the life and sacrifices of Bahubali. It also captures Jain heritage and culture,” Moily said. The former chief minister is renowned for his literary writings too, and spends four to five hours a day on research and writing.
Poet Arundhathi Subramaniam won the award for her poetry collection ‘When God is a Traveller’ in English. Others who won the award in poetry include Harish Meenakshi (Gujarati), Anamika (Hindi), RS Bhaskar (Konkani), Irungbam Deven (Manipuri) and Rupchand Hansda (Santali). Nanda Khare (Marathi), Maheshchandra Sharma Gautam (Sanskrit), Imaiyam (Tamil) and Sri Hussain-ul-Haque were named winners for their novels. Apurba Kumar Saikia (Assamese), (late) Dharanidhar Owari (Bodo) and (late) Hiday Koul Bharti (Kashmiri), have received the award for short stories.