February 6, 2002

    The President, Shri K. R. Narayanan gave away Certificates of Honour to scholars of Sanskrit, Pali/Prakrit, Arabic and Persian for the years 1999, 2000 & 2001 at Rashtrapati Bhavan here today. Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi; Home Minister, Shri L. K. Advani; Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Smt. Rita Verma among others were also present at the Ceremony.

    The scheme for the Award of the "Certificate of Honour" was introduced in 1958 to Honour the scholars of Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian languages. The scheme was extended to cover Pali/Prakrit in 1996. The distinction is announced once a year on Independence Day in recognition of the substantial contribution of the scholars in their respective fields. The scheme provides a monetary grant of Rs. 50,000/- annually for life, apart from a Sanad and a Shawl presented by the President to each scholar. Under the scheme there are 15 awards for Sanskrit, 3 each for Arabic and Persian and one for Pali/Prakrit annually.

    Recipients of Certificate of Honour for the year 1999 for Sanskrit are: Shri Dharmadhikari Trivikram Narayan, Dr. Dhyanesh Narayan Chakrabarti, Shri E. J. Kumaraswamy Deekshither, Shri Gullapalli Anjaneya Ghanapathi, Shri Hari Sambasiva Sastry, Dr. Hem Chandra Joshi, Pt. Mahadev Shastri, Dr. Murlidhar Mishra, Shri Neelakanth Mahashankar Shukla, Prof. P. C. Devassia, Shri Raja S. Gururajacharya, Prof. Rajendra Mishra, Dr. Shiv Dutt Sharma Chatuvedi, Dr. Surendra Narayana Tripathi and Shri Vishvanth Mishra. For the year 2000 in Sanskrit are Dr. Badrinath Kalla, Prof. Brahmachari Surendra Kumar, Prof. Devi Datt Sharma, Dr. Govind Gopal Mukhopadhyaya, Shri Jaggu Narasimhachar, Pt. Kamala Kant Shukla, Dr. Krishna Kant Chaturvedi, Shri L. M. Subramanaya Ghanapathi, Pt. Mohan Lal Sharam Pandey, Dr. Pramod Ganesh Lalye, Prof. Puspendra Kumar, Acharya Ram Nath Suman, Shri Rani Narasimha Sastry, Shri R. Vasudevan Potti and Prof. Shridhar Vasishtha.

    And the recipients of Certificate of Honour for the year 2001 are : Dr. Ashok Kumar Goswami, Dr. Dayanad Narasimh Shanbhag, Shri Ganesh Hari Tarlekar, Pt. Gopal Narayan Bahura, Dr. Kansara Narayan Manilal, Shri K. Narayana Bhatta, Prof. Mohd. Israil Khan, Dr. N. Parameswaran Unni, Dr. Sitanath Goswami, Pt. Sitaram Kaviraj, Shri Sripada Lakshmi Narayana Sastry, Dr. Suresh Chandra Pande, Prof. Vachaspati Upadhyaya, Shri Vasudeva Srivatsankacharya, Pt. Vayunandan Pandey and Shri V. Srinivas Desikachariya.

    Recipients of Certificate of Honour for the year 1999, 2000 and 2001 for Pali/Prakrit are Prof. Narayana Hemandas Samtani, Prof. Raja Ram Jain and Shri Sanghasen Singh respectively.

    For Arabic recipients of Certificate of Honour for the year 1999 are - Dr. Mushtaq Qarim Qidwai, Prof. Syed Badrul Hasan Abidi and Dr. Zuair Ahamad Farooqi. For the year 2000 are –Shri Abdul Hai Faaiz, Dr. Mohamad Sulaiman Ashraf and Prof. Moinuddin Azmi. And for the year 2001 are – Dr. Abdul Haq, Prof. Masoodur Rahman Khan Nadwi and Dr. Shafi M. Shaikh.

    For Persian recipients of Certificate of Honour for the year 1999 are – Prof. Ansari Ahmed Abdul Qadir, Dr. Asifa Zamani and Dr. Syed Abdul Rahim. For the year 2000 are – Prof. Nurus Sayeed Akhter (Saudagar), Prof. Sharif Hussain Qasemi and Dr. (Mrs.) Syeda Bashir Unnisa Begum. And for the year 2001 are Dr. Abdul Ghaffar Ansari and Dr. Ghulam Mujtaba Ansari. For the few scholars who could not attend the Ceremony, the Certificates of Honour were received by their relatives on their behalf.