Berhampur, Jan. 2: Novelist Giriraj Kishore today received the Kabi Samrat Upendra Bhanja National Award for Literature and Arts, instituted by the Berhampur University.
The award was presented on the inaugural day of the university's three-day-long golden jubilee ceremony, Goldfest-2016, on its campus in the city.
The university was established on January 2, 1967, and its campus was named Bhanja Vihar to perpetuate the memory of Upendra Bhanja, one of the most eminent poets of medieval Odisha. Though born in a royal family, Bhanja had preferred devoting his entire life to literature to ruling over his kingdom.
"Giriraj Kishore is one among the few Indian litterateurs of the 20th century who, in his writings, shares his humanistic orientation with Bhanja, abiding concern with the abstract and abundance of narrative energy," said varsity vice-chancellor Deepak Kumar Behera.
Kishore, who had served as assistant registrar and deputy registrar of Kanpur University between 1966 and 1975, registrar of IIT Kanpur from 1975 to 1983, said: "No university in the country has been named after a poet. We must keep the dignity of the poet and the literature."
He had also headed the Centre for Creative Writing at IIT Kanpur from 1983 to 1997.
Kishore, a native of Uttar Pradesh, was awarded Padma Shri in 2007.
In 1992, he had received the Sahitya Akademi award for his novel Dhaighar. The President had conferred the Shatdal award on him on behalf of the Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad, Calcutta.
The renowned novelist had also been awarded the Vyas Samman from the K.K. Birla Foundation for Pehla Girmitia.
Earlier, he had received many awards, including the Mahatma Gandhi Samman, Bharatendu Purashkar and the Sahitya Bhusan from the UP Hindi Sansthan, apart from the All India Veer Singh Devjoo Award from the Madhya Pradesh Sahitya Parishad.
The state's higher education minister, Pradeep Panigrahi said the golden jubilee celebrations provided an opportunity for introspection and preparation of the future roadmap of Berhampur University.
Berhampur MP Sidhant Mohapatra said that in the past 50 years, the university had made great strides in areas of teaching, research and extension.
"It has carved out a niche for itself in the academic map of the country," said Mohapatra.
The vice-chancellor said the university had been established with only 11 colleges with a total student strength of 4,586.
Now, the number of its affiliated colleges has gone up to 149. Six colleges under the jurisdiction of this university have been accorded autonomous status. There are now 22 postgraduate departments.
"But in order to increase the gross enrolment ratio, we need to pay attention to the capacity building of these institutions along with inclusive policies," he said.
