CM Sarbananda Sonowal Confers Madhavdeb Award in Lakhimpur

A CORRESPONDENT

LAKHIMPUR: Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal conferred the prestigious Madhavdeb Award to Xatradhikar Jogadananda Chandra Goswami and Padmashree Dr Sunil Kothari in Lakhimpur on Monday.

This award, which was introduced in 2009 honouring the luminous icon of spirituality, culture and literature and Sankardev’s chief disciple, Mahapurush Madhavdeb, was conferred to Mayamora Dijoy Xatra Xatradhikar Jugadananda Chandra Choudhuri for 2016 for his immense contribution of spreading the ideology and culture of Sankardev and Madhavdeb. On the other hand, the award for the session of 2019 was given to Padmashree Dr. Sunil Kothari who is an internationally acclaimed dance historian, researcher and critique and winner of Sagngeet Natak Academy Award. He pursued comprehensive knowledge on Xattriya dance staying at Kamalabari Xatra in Majuli in 1964. Then he came to Assam in 1968, 1970, 1975 and 1999 and recorded information of Xattriya dance along with Devdasi dance and Ojapali of the State. Since then, the exponent has contributed immensely towards establishing the Xattriya dance in national and international platform.

On this occasion, a programme in a befitting manner was organized at the playground of Narayanpur HS School of Lakhimpur district under the aegis of the Directorate of Culture in association with Lakhimpur district administration. In the programme, the award winners were given warm felicitation and the Chief Minister honoured them with gamosa, seleng sadar, xarai, citations and cheques of Rs. 3,00,000 each as tokens of the award. Attending the programme as chief guest, the Chief Minister called upon the upcoming generation to proceed towards their goal, enriched with the spiritual ideology of Madhavdeb.

In the same programme, the Chief Minister officially inaugurated the Madhavdev University which was declared by the State Government in 2017, upgrading the Madhavdev College of Narayanpur established in 1964.

“I hope the students who will study in this academic institution will attain humanitarian education and will be established intellectually. They will shine not only in the nation but in the international platform also. For this, they must be studious and hardworking,” said Chief Minister Sonowal.

He called upon Dibakar Chandra Deka, the founder Vice-Chancellor of Madhavdev University, to shape his students with strong spiritual ideology and value-based education. In connection, he appealed the parents and guardians to encourage them to pursue education in the real sense so that they could proceed in their life with a sense of spiritual consciousness for the building of the society and nation. Further, he emphasized creating strong public opinion to combat drug addiction and superstitious beliefs.

Also Read: Xatradhikar Jugadananda, Sunil Kothari named for Madhabdev Award

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