The Bhasha Bharathi awards, given every two years, were presented to 15 writers of different languages at the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), here on Friday.

The awards were given in two categories - for original writing by writers whose mother tongue is different from the language in which the prize winning book is written, and for translations.

Speaking at the awards function, CIIL Director Uday Narayan Singh said that the award instituted in 2001, had only six awardees the first time and now the number had increased to 15.

Explaining the modalities followed to select works for awards, Singh said that a ground-level panel was formed, after which internet and newspaper advertisements were issued, inviting names and writings contesting for the awards. The second jury shortlists names for the final jury to select the awardees. The writings which help build bridges between languages win Bhasha Bharathi awards, Mr Singh added.

Original writings

Language, writer and book in that order: Assamese (Ushararanjan Bhattacharjee- Rabindranath Aru Asam); Bengali (Karabi Deb Barman-Srijane Utsabe); Marathi (Ranganath Tiwari- Begam Samaru); Tamil (Hamsa Dhanagopal- Nalladhor Veenai Seithe); Telugu (Afsar- Valasa), and Urdu (Pritpal Singh Betab-Mouj-E-Reg).

Translations

Marathi to Gujarathi (Prathibha Dave- Lohinan Ansu); Malayalam to Kannada (N Damodara Shetty- Devara Vikaragalu); Bengali to Kashmiri (R L Shant- Gare Badli); Gujarathi to Konkani (Ravindra Kelekar- Disa Sapan); Oriya to Maithili (Ramanand Jha ‘Raman’- Chhao Bighha Aath Kattha); Pali to Malayalam (Madhavan Ayyappath- Dharmapadam); Kannada to Oriya (Sudarshan Acharya- Nisarga); Kannada to Punjabi (Loveleen Kaur Jolly- Kaanur Heggadithi), and Marathi to Sindhi (Lachman Parasram Hardwani-Jnaneshwari).