Hundreds of litterateurs and journalists assembled at the Kalinga literary Festival (KlF) held here on Monday in the back drop of Odia language having accorded the classical language status on February 20. Odia is the only and first language in the Indo-Aryan language group to have such a status.
Organised by the OdishaDiary, an online media of the State, the festival was inaugurated by Padma Bibhusan Dr Sitakanta Mahapatra, Prof Natabar Satapathy, Dr Arun Rath, Odisha Sahitya Academy president Satakadi Hota, Padma Shri Debi Prasanna Patnaik, poet Fani Mohanty, poet Manorama Mohapatra and KlF director Rashmi Ranjan Parida.
On the occasion, the first Kalinga Sahitya Samman was conferred on Padma Shri Prof Debi Prasanna Pattanaik. Prof Patnaik was the head of the team that researched and submitted a report to the Centre and strongly argued in favour of according the classical language status for Odia.
Some interesting books by both reputed and new talents released during the function included Antarctica Diary by Dr Arun Rath, Tamanna A Wish by Bilina Pattanaik, Reporting-Kichhi Akuha Katha by Saumya Parida, Saphalata Ra Abhibyakti by Barendra Kumar and English Mantra by Janardan Mishra.