The Vyas Samman is a literary award in India, first awarded in 1991. It is awarded annually by the K.K. Birla Foundation and includes a cash payout of Rs 4,00,000.
The K.K. Birla Foundation was established in 1991 by Krishna Kumar Birla in Delhi. Its mission is to promote literature and the arts, as well as education and social work. It regularly gets mentioned in the media for the awards it confers, including:
Satya Vrat Shastri was an Indian Sanskrit scholar, writer, grammarian and poet. He wrote three Mahakavyas, three Khandakavyas, one Prabandhakavyas and one Patrakavya and five works in critical writing in Sanskrit. His important works are Ramakirtimahakavyam, Brahattaram Bharatam, Sribodhisattvacharitam, Vaidika Vyakarana, Sarmanyadesah Sutram Vibhati, and "Discovery of Sanskrit Treasures" in seven volumes.
Krishna Kanta Handique was a Sanskrit scholar, an Indologist and philanthropist from Assam. He was a recipient of the civilian honour of the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan.
Bhagirath Prasad Tripathi, better known as Vagish Shastri, was an Indian Sanskrit grammarian, linguist, tantra and yogi. In 2018, Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian award Padma Shri for his work in the field of literature and education.
Hampa Nagarajaiah, popularly known by his pen name Hampanā, is an Indian scholar in Kannada language and Jainism. He was born at Hampasandra Village located in Gowribidanur taluk, Chikkaballapura District in the Indian state of Karnataka. Hampanā is married to Kamala Hampana who also a veteran littérateur.
Bhagchandra (Bhaskar) Jain is an Indian scholar, renowned for his knowledge of Jainism and Buddhism, and of classical Indian languages including Pali and Sanskrit. His career has spanned more than five decades. He is the recipient of the 2004 "Presidential Award" for his contribution to Pali-Prakrit languages and Buddhism & Jainism religions.
Sukhlal Sanghvi, also known as Pandit Sukhlalji, was a Jain scholar and philosopher. He belonged to the Sthanakvasi sect of Jainism. Pandit Sukhlal lost his eyesight at the age of sixteen on account of smallpox. However, he persisted and became profoundly versed in Jain logic and rose to become a professor at Banaras Hindu University. Paul Dundas calls him one of the most incisive modern interpreters of Jain philosophy. Dundas notes that Sanghavi represents what now seems to be a virtually lost scholarly and intellectual world. He was a mentor for famous Jain scholar Padmanabh Jaini. During his lifetime he won such awards as the Sahitya Akademi Award and won recognition from the Government of India by getting Padma Bhushan award. Sukhlalji was also known as Pragnachaksu because he was so vastly learned despite being visually disabled.
Rewa Prasad Dwivedi was a Sanskrit scholar, poet, writer, teacher, and critic. His original works include poetry as epics and lyrics, plays, and prose. He wrote new literature under the pseudonym "sanatana", meaning 'the eternal'. He is also known as 'Acharya' Dwivedi.
Mithila Prasad Tripathi is a Sanskrit poet who won the Sahitya Akademi Award for Sanskrit for 2010 for his poetry. The Sahitya Akademi is India's national academy of letters that awards the Jnanpith Award, India's highest literary award, and the Sahitya Akademi Award for each language is considered the second-highest literary award in India and the highest award for that language. He also won Rashtrapati Award in 2017, for his work in Sanskrit Language.
Abhiraj Rajendra Mishra is a Sanskrit author, poet, lyricist, playwright and a former Vice-Chancellor of the Sampurnanand Sanskrit University, Varanasi.
Gouri Dharmapal (1931—2014) was an Indian poet, Sanskrit scholar, and the former head of the department of Sanskrit at Lady Brabourne College at the University of Calcutta. In 2010 she was awarded a Certificate of Honour by the President of India. Dharmapal was the first woman priest of West Bengal.
Devi Dutt Sharma is an Indian scholar and writer of Dogri literature, best known for his writings on Himalayan dialects, culture and ethnic history. The Government of India honored Sharma in 2011, with the fourth highest civilian award of Padma Shri.
Keshab Chandra Dash, is a scholar and author from Odisha.
Subrat Kumar Prusty is an Indian Odia-language scholar, activist, social entrepreneur, literary critic and author. He is Member Secretary of the Institute of Odia Studies and Research, Bhubaneswar, Odisha. He was instrumental in preparing the research documents, advocating the awarding of Classical Language status to Odia, forming Central Institute of Classical Odia, Odia University and implementation of the Odisha Official Language Act, 1954. He was awarded the Presidential Certificate of Honour and Maharshi Badrayan Vyas Samman – 2019 for Classical Odia.
Sampadananda Mishra is a Sanskrit scholar from Odisha, specializing in grammar. Mishra was awarded the Maharshi Badrayan Vyas Award for Sanskrit in 2012 by Pratibha Patil, the-then President of India. Mishra was conferred Sahitya Akademi Bala Puraskar 2018 for his book Shanaih Shanaih - A book of Rhyming songs in Sanskrit.
Sachchidananda Mishra is a Varanasi-based Sanskrit scholar. He is a professor of Philosophy and Religion at the Benares Hindu University. He was awarded the Maharshi Badrayan Vyas Award for Sanskrit for the year 2009 by Pratibha Patil, the then President of India. He specializes in Indian philosophy and Sanskrit grammar.
Balram Shukla is an academician, poet and author based in New Delhi. He is a self-taught scholar of Sanskrit and Indian literature. He works as a professor of Sanskrit at the University of Delhi. He is a scholar of Sanskrit, Hindi, Urdu, Persian and Prakrit. He writes poetry in both Sanskrit and Persian, and also translates Persian poetry into Sanskrit using the same poetic metres. He has been awarded the Badrayan Vyas Award for Sanskrit in 2013 by the President of India. He has authored eight books.
A. A. Manavalan (1937–2018) was a Tamil language Indian scholar. He was awarded Saraswati Samman (2011) for his work Irama Kathaiyum Iramayakalyum (2005), which is a comparative study of Ramayana written in 48 languages including Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit, Tibetan, Tamil, Old Javanese, Japanese, Telugu, Assamese, Malayalam, Bengali, Kannada, Marathi, Hindi, Odisi, Persian, Malay, Burmese, Maranao, Thai, Laotian and Kashmiri. He was the second person from Tamil Nadu to receive this honour, first was Indira Parthasarathy
