Dash Benhur receives Rayagada Literary Award 2025, says literature is not bound by letters but by hearts
Dr.Badal Tah,Odishabarta
Rayagada, December 15: Literature is a very important part of culture. Architecture will be lost and destroyed; but literature will not ever be lost. Everything is unstable but the glory of letters is eternal. This has been opined by many participants on the occasion of Rayagada Literary Festival 2025. The Festival was organized under the chairmanship of its President Dr Dushmant Kumar Mohanty at the local UGMIT engg school conference room. Prominent literary figure Dash Benhur, Chief Guest on the occassion, said that empathy is the root of literature. The language of the mother is the original voice of literature. Throughout the ages, Ramayana has spoken the words of Truth, Gita Dharma and Bhagavat Bhakti. He expressed that Jagannath Temple is the best university and the Odia people have always spoken their own words.
President Dr. Mohanty spoke about the history of Rayagada literature, while the festival Secretary, Susanta Kumar Nayak, introduced the guests and spoke about the purpose of organizing the literary festival. Festival advisors Ashok Kumar Sharda and Labanya Shabar, Rayagada Additional District Magistrate Naveen Chandra Nayak spoke about the beautiful literary environment of district.
Literary scholar Dash Benhur was awarded this year’s Rayagada Literature Award along with a souvenir, a citation and a cash prize of ten thousand rupees. The inaugural ceremony was presided over by Sridhar Patnaik, while the organising secretary, Dr. Dwiti Chandra Sahu, gave vote of thanks by providing information about the glorious golden history of Rayagada.
On this occasion, the guests released the book of the festival, Shabda Raaga and book of poetess Sangita Mishra. The oldest literary scholar and historian, Srirang Nayak, was honored. In the second session organized under the chairmanship of Pranakrushna Panigrahi, Shibashish Padhi, Sridhar Patnaik and Rupesh Sahu read their stories and all the readers were honored. In this event moderated by Bebirani Nanda, senior laureate Bishnu Sahu was the chief guest, Chandrakant Biswal was the main speaker and Ramesh Takri, Rajesh Padhi, Rabi Panda and Rabi Swain were the honorable guests, who gave their views on the process of Odia stories. Labanya Mohan Patnaik proposed vote of thanks.
Similarly, in the evening session, Southern RDC Sangram Mahapatra participated as chief guest and suggested the audience to practise pure literature instead of self-preaching. A poetry session was organized under the chairmanship of Bipin Bihari Biswal. In this, poets from the district and outside participated and recited their own poems. Poetess Pritidhara Samal was the chief guest, while poets namely Madhuri Panda, Rabi Satapathy and Bijaya Pradhan shared their views on Odia poetry. While Arun Lenka delivered the welcome address, Niranjan Nayak moderated the whole session. Poets Mahasweta Panigrahi, Sasmita Mishra, Kalyani Sasmal, Rabi Satapathy, Arun Panigrahi, Triveni Mishra, Sasmita Acharya, Prashanthi Sahu and Pradeep Nayak participated the main poetry evening. Shiba Mishra and Jagdish Dora facilitated all the programs of the festival.
