BHOPAL: A tribal painter Shanti Bai Maravi from Mandla and folk singer Malini Awasthi from Lucknow to be feted with ‘Rashtriya Tulsi, Devi Ahilya Samman,’ the year 2019 and 2020 respectively.
The Madhya Pradesh Government declared the awards on Wednesday. Besides Devi Ahilya Samman, Tulsi Samman for the year 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 were also announced.
Painter Kailash Chand Sharma from Jaipur, flute player Vikram Yadav from Rajnandgaon (CG), Kabir singer Bharti Bandhu from Raipur and tribal artist Tilakram Pendram will be presented ‘Tulsi Samman’ for the year 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 respectively.
Minister of tourism, culture and spirituality, Usha Thakur will confer the awards to artists at Nimar festival to be held at Maheshwar from November 19. A sum of Rs 2 lakh will be given to each artist.
The department of culture, government of Madhya Pradesh has established the Rashtriya Tulsi Samman 1in 983 to honor excellence and best achievement in tribal, folk and traditional arts. The award is given to male artists only. Rashtriya Tulsi Samman is given twice in three years for performing arts and once for visual arts. Similarly, the department has established Goddess Ahilya Samman Devi Ahilya Samman in 1996 to honour women artists in the field of tribal, folk and traditional arts.
