Bhubaneswar: Noted litterateur and poet Ramakanta Rath was conferred with the prestigious ‘Atibadi Jagannath Das Samman- 2018’ by Odisha Sahitya Akademi for his life-long contribution to Odia literature, at Rabindra Mandap here Thursday.
The event, which had Tourism and culture minister Ashok Chandra Panda as its chief guest, witnessed the release of four books. Around 15 other litterateurs namely Banshidhar Sahu, Braja Mohan Mishra, Bijay Chandra Jena, Duryodhan Das, Giri Dandasena, Kunja Bihari Padhi, Laxmidhar Nayak Adisya, Mangovind Mahasupakar, Prafulla Kumar Das, Pratima Mishra, Sankarshan Mangaraj, Sarojini Sarangi, Satya Narayan Rath, Sitaram Birtia and Sri Kumar Chakraborty were also felicitated during the award ceremony.
It may be worth mentioning here that the award, Atibadi Jagannath Das, is named after 15th century Odia poet Atibadi Jagannath Das who was also known as Atibadi meaning greatest. Started in 1993, the first award was given to Odia poet Radha Mohan Gadnayak and so far, 20 such awards have been presented.
