GUWAHATI: The award ceremony of the highest and oldest literary honour 'The Jnanpith Award' this year will be hosted in Assam on Monday 11 April.
Renowned Assamese poet Nilamani Phookan will be conferred with the prestigious Jnanpith Award 2021 during the maiden Award ceremony in Assam.
Earlier in December last year, the name of Phookan was selected for the 56th Jnanpith Award to be held today in Assam.
Notably, the northeastern state of Assam will be hosting the award ceremony for the first time as the previous award ceremonies were organized in the national capital Delhi.
The award ceremony sponsored by Bharatiya Jnanpith will be hosted at the Rabindra Bhawan which is on the Gopinath Bordoloi Road of Assam's Guwahati city.
The chief guest of the award function will be the Chief Minister of Assam Himanta Biswa Sarma. The award will be given by the CM along with the member of the Jnanpith committee who will be attending the event on Monday.
It is noteworthy that 88-year-old Nilamani Phookan is the 3rd person from Assam to receive the reputed award which is the highest literary honour in India.
Earlier Mamoni Raisom Goswami and Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya from Assam were honoured with the Jnanpith Award.
It may be mentioned that earlier for his poetry collection, 'Kobita' Pookan also received the honour for the most outstanding books literary 'Sahitya Akademi Award' in 1981.
Phookan was also awarded Padma Shree in the category of Literature and Education in 1990 and was given with Sahitya Akademi Fellowship in the year 2002.
Apart from 'Kobita' some of the other notable works of the Assamese poet that led him to gain much recognition are 'Gulapi Jamur Lagna', 'Surya Henu Nami Ahe Ei Nodiyedi', 'Selected Poems of Nilmani Phookan', 'Manas-pratima', and 'Phuli Thaka Suryamukhi Phultor Phale.'
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