Janasthan award for Vijaya Rajadhyaksha

NASHIK: Noted Marathi author, literary critic and Sahitya Akadamy Awardee Vijaya Rajadhyaksha will be honoured with this year’s Janasthan Puraskar, one of the most revered awards in Marathi literature.
Rajashyaksha will become the second women littérateur after poetess Indira Sant to receive this award. The biennial award was instituted back in 1991 by legendary Marathi poet Kusumagraja (VV Shirwadkar) in Nashik.Since then, the Kusumagraj Foundation gives the award to veterans of Marathi literature.
Makarand Hingane, executive president of the foundation, declared the name of Vijaya Rajadhyaksha as the recipient of the‘Janasthan’ award for 2017 on Thursday evening. “The award consists of one lakh rupees in cash, a bronze statue of the Sun god and a citation. Rajadhyaksha will be honoured with the award on February 27, the birth anniversary of Kusumagraja,” Hingane said.
Born in 1933, Rajadhyaksha studied at the Rajaram College in Kolhapur, and then obtained her doctorate from Mumbai University. She taught Marathi literature at Elphinstone College affiliated with Mumbai University, and then served as the head of the Marathi department in SNDT Women's University, Mumbai. Her critical appreciation of poems by legendary Marathi poet BS Mardhekar earned her the Sahitya Akademi Award.