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Since April 2008, The Anād Foundation has organized the poetry festival Anād Kāv Tarang.

To honour the sweet memory of  the Punjabi poetess Bibi Baljit Kaur Tulsi, the Anad Foundation started Anād Kāv Tarang Poetry festival and Anād Kāv Sanmān in 2008. The award, offered to eminent poets by the Tulsi Family, includes a cash prize of Rupees 2.25 lacs, a citation, a tāmra-patra and a shawl or a turban.

The famous Punjabi poet, Surjit Patar, was the first recipient of this prestigious award conferred, on behalf of the Anad Foundation, by Dr. Upinderjit Kaur, Cabinet Minister Punjab, on April 8, 2008 at Stein Auditorium, India Habitat Centre. On that occasion, eminent poets Balraj Komal, K Satchidanandan, Anamika and Ashok Vajpayee recited their poems.

Amarjeet Chandan, was the second recipient of the Anād Kāv Sanmān in 2009 for his seminal contribution to Punjabi poetry and for bringing Punjabi poetry on the international scene. Professor Namvar Singh, Professor Emeritus, Jawahar Lal University and Chancellor, Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishvavidyalaya, presided over the Anād Kāv Tarañg2009 and launched Paintee, selected 35 poems by Chandan. Krishen Khanna, the painter, was very kind in accepting our humble request to be the Chief Guest and for conferring the Anad Kav Sanman 2009.

Anād Kāv Sanmān Jury

2008-09 till 2010-11

 Chairperson: Professor Satyapal Gautam

Officiating Chairperson: Professor Bhagvan Josh

1. Professor Satyapal Gautam, Vice Chancellor, Mahatama Jyotiba Phule Rohelkhand University, Bareilly (Uttar Pradesh) philosopher and critic
2. Professor Bhagvan Josh, Professor and Chair, Centre of Historical Studies, JNU, leading historian and commentator
3. Professor Renuka Singh, Associate Professor, Centre for the Study of Social Systems
4. Dr. Madan Gopal Singh, Senior Fellow, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, Teen Murti House, New Delhi, and cultural activist and commentator
5. M. K. Raina, leading theatre director, film maker and cultural activist
6. Manglesh Dabral, leading Hindi poet and journalist

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CITATIONS OF THE PREVIOUS AWARDS

 (a)

Anād Sanmān 2006

Citation: Honouring Bhai Avtar Singh, Bhai Gurcharan Singh

 Bhai Avtar Singh and Bhai Gurcharan Singh are of those rare ones who through their radiance remind us of the vastness of which we are a part.

They have traveled the globe to carry the Guru’s message of joy and serenity through sacred music that flows from their rich oral intangible heritage.

Steeped in tradition, they have remained open to the needs of the changing times and have responded with a monumental collection of recordings and published documentation.

With artistic craftsmanship, unwavering stability, gracious humility and selfless service, they have lived as representatives of the Guru’s darbar, and have left a legacy to ensure that the treasures they have cared for will remain for the generations of seekers who follow.

With heartfelt gratitude for a lifetime of service to humanity

through your music, inspiration and love

Anad Foundation presents

Anād Sanmān 2006

To

Bhai Avtar Singh Ragi and Bhai Gurcharan Singh Ragi

This 16th day of October, 2006

Delhi, India

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(b) 

Anād Kāv Sanmān 2007-8

Citation: Honouring Surjit Patar

Surjit Patar Ji, you have made a significant contribution to the advancement of Punjabi literary heritage by making Punjabi Poetry a companion of contemporary times.

The partitioned Punjab of 1947, people longing for social justice, oppression of women, migration of millions of Punjabis and induction of workers from outside Punjab, alienation of Punjabis from their land, environs, language and self-identity – are the themes which have found a voice in your poetry.

You have enriched and embellished Punjabi poetry by bringing it closer to the people. Your poetry is a sensitive expression and document of the joys, sorrows and aspirations of Punjabis.

As a recognition and appreciation of

your dedicated service to your mother-language Punjabi

Anād Foundation

today, Tuesday, the Eighth day of April the year 2008 AD

feels honoured in presenting you

Surjit Patar Ji

the

Anād KāV Sanmān

with gratitude

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(c)

Anād Kāv Sanmān 2008-9

Citation: Honouring Amarjit Chandan

Punjab has been the land of poetry since times immemorial. You, Mr Amarjit Chandan, have contributed substantially in carrying this rich poetic legacy forward.

Your writing throbs with the collective cultural heritage of the united Punjab. You have been blessed with the gift of the word. You have nurtured this gift with an abiding adherence to a simplicity of expression, a deeply felt compassion and a disciplined diction.

In your entire oeuvre – encompassing both poetry and prose – the reader experiences a purity of being. It is indeed an achievement to have coined a new literary idiom so unique and pure. You do not just write with language, you write with an authorial style.

Suffused with the resonance of the sky, earth and the unknown, your creations are distinct in their essence. The universe you create in words is wondrously aesthetic in its elegance and beautiful in its humane warmth.

Delving deep within the self, you have reflectively invoked the folk, the Sufic and the Gurbani traditions assimilating their philosophy and vision in a contemporary idiom.

In your writings, the division between philosophy and poetry dissolves even as the world of Punjabi cultural memory opens up in a spontaneous and gentle evocation.

Your poetry celebrates the spirit of the entire humanity and effortlessly traverses across cultures.

The manner in which your poetry expresses and affirms the human and material relations is a signpost in the history of Punjabi literature.

The innate simplicity with which you have represented the Punjabi language is a great achievement of your creativity.

Your poetry has decisively earned an international space for your mother tongue, the Punjabi language, in the comity of world literature.

Recognizing the inimitable service rendered by you to literature and to your mother tongue,

the Anad Foundation on this day,

the 22nd of November 2009,

in New Delhi,

confers upon you in humility and with gratitude the Anad Kav Sanman in memory of Bibi Baljit Kaur Tulsi.

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(d)

Anād Kāv Sanmān 2009-10

Citation: Honouring Navtej Bharati and Ajmer Rode

Navtej Bharati and Ajmer Rode jio

Your magnum opus Leela has made many people re-engage with poetry as no other book in Punjabi has in recent times.

Its poems defy categorization, the layout foregrounds poetry instead of the poet and the scripts of ancient and modern languages reproduced illumine the poetry of their own. Through its aesthetics Leela honours our forefathers who created scripts on stones, clays, tree barks, and leathers and showed us the way.

Leela has been aptly described as a book of epic dimensions, one of the most important poetry books of the twentieth century, and an all-time classic.

Ajmer ji, you have expanded the scope of Punjabi language and given a new turn to its poetry infusing it with inspirations from science. You have introduced ideas of the concrete, dadaist and surrealist poetry into Punjabi. Your poetic voice is distinct and unassuming, imbued with karuna and empathy. Like mastering both Sitar and Piano you have written in Punjabi and English with dexterity. You have been included in reputed English anthologies and have enhanced the image of Punjabi poetry abroad.

Navtej ji, your poetry is a rebuttal to pronouncements that poetry is dying in our times. You have inspired many to turn to poetry in our language. Your long poems in Leela show your epic breadth to reconstruct reality interpreting Indian myths in contemporary context. Your style blends lyricism, simplicity and philosophy to create prose and poetry par excellence. The publication of your English poems, Endless Eye, by the Poetry Association of Canada, a reputed organization in the country, expands the reach of Punjabi poetry.

In recognition to your dedication to Punjabi and to literature

The Anād Foundation

today, Sunday, the twenty-eighth day of November the year 2010 AD feels honoured in presenting you Navtej Bharati and Ajmer Rode jio

the Anād Kāv Sanmān 2009 with gratitude

In memory of Bibi Baljit Kaur Tulsi.