Odia poet, essayist and former scientist Ashutosh Parida has been selected for the 47th Sarala Puraskar, one of Odisha’s most prestigious literary honours, for his poetry collection Bishwas De Pruthwi (2024). The award, which carries a cash prize of ₹7 lakh, will be presented to him at a ceremony in Bhubaneswar on October 25, 2026. The honour places Parida, who spent decades as a scientist at the CSIR-Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, among the most celebrated contemporary voices in Odia literature.
What Is the Sarala Puraskar?
The Sarala Puraskar is an annual literary award given for outstanding achievement in Odia literature. It is widely regarded as the foremost literary honour of Odisha, a benchmark that Odia writers have aspired to since the award began.
The award was instituted in 1980 by industrialist Dr Bansidhar Panda and his wife Ila Panda, the founders of the Indian Metals and Ferro Alloys Ltd (IMFA) group. It takes its name from Sarala Das, the 15th century poet revered as the Adi Kavi, or first poet, of Odia literature. Over the decades, the prize money has grown steadily, rising from ₹5 lakh in earlier editions to the present ₹7 lakh.
The Awarding Body: IMPaCT and IMFA
The Sarala Puraskar is presented by the Indian Metals Public Charitable Trust (IMPaCT), the charitable arm of Indian Metals and Ferro Alloys Ltd (IMFA). IMPaCT was founded in 1974 to promote art, culture and sports in Odisha. IMFA, established in 1961 and headquartered in Bhubaneswar, is India’s largest producer of value-added ferro chrome and one of the state’s oldest industrial houses.
IMPaCT has grown into one of Odisha’s most influential philanthropic institutions. Alongside the Sarala Puraskar, it institutes the Ekalabya Puraskar (started in 1993) for sporting excellence and the Ila-Bansidhar Panda Kala Samman (started in 2015) for lifetime achievement in visual and performing arts.
The 47th Edition: Announcement and Prize Details
The 47th edition of the Sarala Puraskar has been announced for Ashutosh Parida, chosen for his poetry collection Bishwas De Pruthwi, published by Prabha Publication in 2024. The collection was picked from a final shortlist of seven books that represented different literary forms, including poetry, stories, novels, short stories and drama.
As the winner, Parida will receive a cash prize of ₹7 lakh, a citation and a copper plaque. The award ceremony will be held in Bhubaneswar on October 25, 2026.
The same announcement also covered the arts. IMPaCT named the recipients of the Ila-Bansidhar Panda Kala Samman 2026: Odissi maestro and Padma Shri awardee Guru Durga Charan Ranbir and sculptor and art educator Damodar Behera. Each will receive a citation, a copper plaque and a cash prize of ₹2.5 lakh.
Ashutosh Parida: The Scientist Who Became a Poet
Ashutosh Parida’s life spans two very different worlds: science and poetry. Born in February 1946 in Kendrapara district of Odisha, he completed his BTech from the Regional Engineering College (now NIT), Rourkela, and earned a PhD from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur. He then worked for decades as a scientist at the CSIR-Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology (CSIR-IMMT) in Bhubaneswar, the institute earlier known as the Regional Research Laboratory.
His literary journey ran parallel to his scientific career. His first book, Jukta Jatana, appeared in 1972, and over more than four decades he has published about eleven poetry collections and a book of essays. His poems, including Ipsita Krodha, Chandala, Raktabarna Bali and Aprastuta Mrutyu, consistently take up themes of poverty, bonded labour, displacement, and caste and gender discrimination.
His work has earned him several major honours. He received the Odisha Sahitya Akademi Award in 1990 for Ipsita Krodha and the Sahitya Akademi Award, the national academy’s annual honour, in 2023 for Aprastuta Mrutyu. The Sarala Puraskar now adds the state’s highest literary honour to this list.
Sarala Das: The Adi Kavi Behind the Award
The Sarala Puraskar draws its name from Sarala Das, the poet who laid the foundation of Odia literature in the 15th century. Born as Siddheswara Parida in present-day Jagatsinghpur district, he wrote at a time when Sanskrit dominated literary expression, choosing instead to write in the language of ordinary people.
His three great works are the Sarala Mahabharata, the Vilanka Ramayana and the Chandi Purana. The Sarala Mahabharata, composed of more than 80,000 couplets, is regarded as the first complete rendering of the epic by a single author in any language other than Sanskrit. A peasant by origin, Sarala Das is also remembered by the title Shudra Muni, and his writing gave voice to marginalised people when literature was largely the preserve of the learned elite.
Odia: A Classical Language with a Rich Literary Tradition
Odia, the language in which the Sarala Puraskar is awarded, holds a special place among Indian languages. It is included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution and was declared a Classical Language in 2014, becoming the first language of the Indo-Aryan family to receive this status. Tamil, Sanskrit, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam were the five languages recognised before it.
Odia writers have also won the country’s highest literary honour. Four Odia writers have received the Jnanpith Award: Gopinath Mohanty (the first Odia winner, 1973), Sachidananda Routray, Sitakant Mahapatra and Pratibha Ray (2011). Awards such as the Sarala Puraskar, which recognise achievement in a specific regional language, stand alongside these national honours in celebrating the depth of Odia literary tradition.
Sarala Puraskar in India’s Literary Awards Landscape
Literary awards in India operate at different levels. National awards such as the Jnanpith recognise a lifetime of contribution across all Indian languages, while the Sahitya Akademi Award is given annually for the best work in each of the country’s major languages. State and regional awards, of which the Sarala Puraskar is a leading example, focus on specific languages and regions.
| Award | Instituted | Awarding Body | Scope | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sarala Puraskar | 1980 | IMPaCT (IMFA) | Best Odia literary work | ₹7 lakh |
| Jnanpith Award | 1961 | Bharatiya Jnanpith | Lifetime contribution in any Indian language | ₹11 lakh + Vagdevi statuette |
| Sahitya Akademi Award | 1954 | Sahitya Akademi | Best work in each major Indian language | ₹1 lakh + copper plaque |
| Saraswati Samman | 1991 | K.K. Birla Foundation | Outstanding prose/poetry in Eighth Schedule languages | ₹15 lakh |
The Sarala Puraskar sits comfortably among these honours. With a prize of ₹7 lakh, it is one of the most generous regional literary awards in India, reflecting the commitment of the IMFA group to the promotion of Odia language and culture. The award also serves as a reminder that India’s literary diversity is sustained not just by national institutions but by the countless regional awards that honour the country’s many languages.
Key Takeaways
- Ashutosh Parida, an Odia poet, essayist and former CSIR-IMMT scientist, has won the 47th Sarala Puraskar for his poetry collection Bishwas De Pruthwi (2024).
- The award carries a cash prize of ₹7 lakh, a citation and a copper plaque, and will be presented in Bhubaneswar on October 25, 2026.
- The Sarala Puraskar is presented by the Indian Metals Public Charitable Trust (IMPaCT), the charitable arm of IMFA, and was instituted in 1980 by Dr Bansidhar Panda and Ila Panda.
- The award is named after Sarala Das, the 15th century Adi Kavi of Odia literature, author of the Sarala Mahabharata, Vilanka Ramayana and Chandi Purana.
- Parida previously won the Odisha Sahitya Akademi Award (1990) and the Sahitya Akademi Award (2023) for Aprastuta Mrutyu.
- Odia was declared a Classical Language in 2014, the first Indo-Aryan language to receive the status, and four Odia writers have won the Jnanpith Award.
