GUWAHATI, June 11 � The Anundoram Borooah Institute of Language, Art and Culture (ABILAC), Assam, has decided to confer the Anundoram Borooah Award for the year 2014 on Keshavananda Deva Goswami, noted scholar in the field of Indology, Assamese literature, culture and Sankardeva studies. This was decided in a meeting of the executive committee of ABILAC, which also acts as the award committee, under the chairmanship of Prof Ashok Kumar Goswami, the vice-chairman, governing council and chairman, executive committee of ABILAC.
The award will be presented at a ceremony to be held towards the end of 2015 in Guwahati, stated a press release.
The award was instituted by ABILAC in the year 1991 in the hallowed memory of Anundoram Borooah, the great Sanskrit scholar and civil servant, to be bestowed every year on a scholar who sets high standards in the sphere of scholarship, especially in the fields of Sanskrit and allied Indological studies, literary and linguistic studies and studies in art and culture.
From the year 1991, this prestigious award has been presented to 15 scholars. The past recipients of this award are Rajanikanta Deva Sarma (1991), Acharyya Manoranjan Shastri (1992), Dr Biswanarayan Shastri (1993), Birendra Kumar Phukan (1994), Dr Praphulladatta Goswami (1995), Jajneswar Sarma (1996), Dr Herambakanta Barpujari (1997), Dr Satyendra Sarma (1998), Dr Jogeswar Sarma (1999), Dr Mukunda Madhava Sharma (2000), Dr Golock Chandra Goswami (2001), Dr Jogendranarayan Bhuyan (2006), Dr Pramod Chandra Bhattacharyya (2007), Dr Harinath Sarmadaloi (2011) and Bhadanta Sasanbansa Mahathera (2012).
Professor Keshavananda Deva Goswami will be the 16th recipient of the award. He started his career as a lecturer in Assamese in the ADP College, Nagaon and retired as professor and head of the department of Assamese from the Dibrugarh University. He also worked as Saint Sankaradev Chair Professor in Patiala University, Punjab in 1974. He has to his credit around 40 books in Assamese and five in English, the release added.