Bengaluru, Sep 28 (PTI) Hindi literary organisation Shabd on Monday announced its 2026 awards, naming biographer Subhash Rai, poet-writer Leeladhar Mandloi, Hindi promoter Narayan Sav and folk singer Seema Mishra as recipients of its honours.
Rai and Mandloi will jointly receive the Agyeya Shabd Srijan Samman, carrying a total prize of Rs 1 lakh, for Rai’s ‘Digambar Vidrohini Akka Mahadevi’ and Mandloi’s autobiography ‘Jab Se Aankh Khuli Hain’, respectively.
Each will receive Rs 51,000 along with a Mysore Peta, memento, Shriphal and Angavastram.
The Dakshin Bharat Shabd Hindi Sevi Samman will be conferred on Narayan Sav, who will receive a cash prize of Rs 25,000, sponsored by the ‘Dakshin Bharat Rashtramat’ newspaper group, besides other honours.
The organisation also announced the institution of the annual Rajasthan Gaurav Puraskar, carrying Rs 1 lakh, with the inaugural award going to Jaipur-based folk singer Seema Mishra for her contribution to folk music.
The awards will be presented at the annual ‘Shabd’ festival and award ceremony in Bengaluru on January 10, 2027, according to a release issued by Shabd president Shreenarayan Sameer.
The jury, comprising Babulal Gupta, Shrikant Parashar, Nalini Popat, Dr Usharani Rao and Sameer, unanimously selected the winners after evaluating 53 entries for the Agyeya award and 11 for the Hindi Sevi Samman.
The jury said Rai had brought the life and rebellion of 12th-century Karnataka saint Akka Mahadevi to Hindi readers and translated her hundred vachanas, while Mandloi had woven the struggles of displaced mine workers, Dalits, Adivasis and other marginalised communities into his autobiography.
It credited Sav with helping establish Hindi as a working language in several establishments of Power Grid’s Southern Region and in non-Hindi-speaking areas, and described Mishra’s folk singing as a revitalising force for Rajasthan’s desert life and adjoining regions.
The prize money for the Agyeya and Rajasthan Gaurav awards will be provided through the foundation of Babulal Gupta and Devika Gupta, the release said. PTI GMS KH
