Saraswati Samman

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The Saraswati Samman (सरस्वती सम्मान), is an annual award for outstanding prose or poetry literary works in any Indian language. It is named after an Indian goddess of learning and is considered to be among the highest literary awards in India. It includes a monetary award of Rs five lakh (as of 2006). The Saraswati Samman was instituted in 1991 by the K. K. Birla Foundation.

The candidates are selected from literary works published in the previous ten years by a panel that included scholars and former award winners. The selected work must have been written in a language listed as an Indian language in the Indian Constitution.

[edit] Awardees

1991 - Harivanshrai 'Bachchan' for his autobiography in four volumes
1992 - Ramakant Rath
1993 - Vijay Tendulkar
1994 - Harbhajan Singh
1995 - Balamani Amma for poetry collection Nivedyam
1996 - Shamsur Rahman Faruqi for She`r-e Shor-Angez
1997 - Manubhai Pancholi
1998 - Sanka Ghosh
1999 - Indira Parthasarathy
2000 - Manoj Das for his novel Amrita Phala (The Nectar Fruit)
2001 - Dalip Kaur Tiwana for her novel Katha Kaho Urvashi
2002 - Mahesh Elkunchwar for his play Yugant
2003 - Govind Chandra Pande for his collection of 163 Sanskrit poems entitled Bhagirathi
2004 - Sunil Gangopadhyay for his novel Pratham Alo
2005 - K. Ayyappa Panicker for his collection of poems Ayyappa Panikarude Kritikal
2006 - Jagannath Prasad Das for his collection of poems Parikrama written in Oriya
2007 - Naiyer Masud for his collection of short stories Taoos Chaman Ki Myna (The Myna from Peacock Garden) written in Urdu