Guwahati: Assam governor Jagdish Mukhi presented the Sangeet Natak Akademi's Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar 2016 to 32 young artistes of the country who have made a mark in their respective fields of performing arts at a special award ceremony at Srimanta Sankaradeva Kalakshetra on Monday.

Sangeet Natak Akademi is the national academy of music, dance and drama and the first national academy of the arts set up after Independence.

Mukhi said, "It is the universal spirit of the artiste in all of us that has gathered us here to celebrate. Our award-winners represent the whole of India. Youth is a wondrous time when dreams are lofty and spirits are high, therefore efforts exerted in the right direction at this age will yield proper fruit, that is, success and recognition and all-round development".

"Our country India, since time immemorial, has been home to creativity and the arts. We worship Saraswati - the goddess of learning and the arts. Her sons are the four Vedas - Rig, Sam, Yajur and Atharva - all a treasure trove of wisdom. So arts, be it dance, music, theatre, folk, tribal, all are spiritual pursuits for us."

He also lauded the great shehnai maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan as a "musician extraordinaire" who brought the shehnai to the world stage.

The award ceremony was followed by performances by some of the awardees - #Yashwant Vaishnav on tabla, Yashwasi Sirpotdar gave a rendition of Hindustani vocal music, K. Sai Giridhar played the mridangam, B. Shree Sundar Kumar the kanjeera and Ashwain Anand the veena.