President Bidhya Devi Bhandari conferred the prestigious Pragya Awards to various artists amid a ceremony held at Shital Niwas on Tuesday. The event marked the sixtieth anniversary of the establishment of Nepal Academy.

Among those felicitated in Poetry category were Chandra Ranohachha, Subhas Rai ‘Captain’, Dipendra Upadhyaya, and Amrita ‘Smriti’, who, respectively, received the award for first, second, and latter two in third positions.

Similarly, Prithvi Pragya Award—one of the highest literary honours of the nation—was handed over to veteran critic and essayist Taranath Sharma. The Award is conferred every four years and includes a purse Rs 400,000. 

Likewise, Nepal Pragya Culture award and Nepal Pragya language award—which com es with a purse of Rs 200,000—were handed over to Veena Paudel and Ramawatar Yadav. The annual Nepal Pragya Literature Award was conferred to poet Bimal Niva and Dhruva Sapkota, for 2073 and 2074, respectively.

Also, the Pragya awards allocated to writers of mother tongues in the Madhesh region were awarded to Abdul Latif Shauk for Urdu language and Som Bahadur Dhimal for Dhimal language in the year 2073 and 2074, respectively. Padam Rai (2073) and Dhan Bahadur Majhi (2074) received the same award under the hilly region category.

Speaking at the event, President Bhandari said that the awardees should play a significant role in political transitions as well as cultural preservation. Bhandari stressed on the need to promote Nepali language and literature in international forums as well.