Mahakavi Akkitham chosen for ”Balamaniyamma award”

KOCHI: Renowned writer and poet Mahakavi Akkitham Achuthan Nambodiri has been chosen for this year”s ”Balamaniyamma award” instituted by International Book Festival Committee for his contribution to Malayalam literature. The award carries a golden pen of two soverigns, a sculpture and a citation.

Akkitham was born and lives in Kumaranallur, Palakkad District, Kerala.

Mahakavi Akkitham, 81, is one of today’s most revered Malayalam writers. He has received numerous awards since his works began to be regularly published in the early 1950s, including a 1973 Kendra Sahitya Academy Award for his poem “Balidarsanam” [“Vision of Bali”] and the Sanjayan Award for his 1952 poem “Irupatham Nottandinte Ithihasam” [“Epic of the 20th Century”]. In literary circles, many consider this work as the starting point of modernism in Malayalam poetry. In all, some 45 collections of his poems, plays and short stories have been published.

He also received the prestigious Amritakeerti Puraskar of Mata Amritanandamayi Math’s for his contributions to poetry, philosophy and Vedic culture

For his part, Akkitham considers his translation of the Srimad Bhagavatam as his life’s most valued work. It comprises 14,613 verses, running 2,400 printed pages. Srimad Bhagavatam is the composition of sage Veda Vyasa on the avatars of Lord Vishnu including the life of Sri Krishna.

As a member of the Yogakshema Sabha (Trissur), Akkitham has worked for social reforms among the Namboothiri Brahmins of Kerala. He also has worked for the promotion of Vedic studies in association with the famous Vedic Study Centres at Thirunavaya, Kadavalloor and Trissur, including the proliferation of Vedic studies among non-Brahmins.

He has strongly spoken out and against untouchability, participating in the Paliyam Sathyagraha fight against untouchability in 1947.