Mahabaleshwar Sail’s Hawthan , a novel in Konkani on the life of a shrinking community of potters from Cancona taluk of south Goa, has bagged the Saraswati Samman instituted by the K.K. Birla Foundation.
Mr. Sail said his writings reflect the struggle of daily life. Hawthan , which came out in 2009, is a work of fiction based on research into the lives of the Kumbars in Goa. The author is successful in painting a picture of the uncertain and bleak future of these traditional potters.
Narrative motifs
The writer kneads the sacred symbol of the ‘hawthan’, the baking pit oven of the potter, into his narrative motifs of belief and superstition, rites and rituals, customs and folklore and practices and improvisations in the tiny community of craftsmen and women.
The Saraswati Samman, instituted in 1991, is given every year to an outstanding literary work written in any Indian language mentioned in Schedule VIII to the Constitution of India by an Indian citizen and published during the last 10 years. It carries a prize of ₹15 lakh, a citation and a plaque.
A committee called the “Chayan Parishad”, presided over by Justice A.S. Anand, former Chief Justice of India, decides on the winner.
Rich tapestry of work
Mr. Sail writes in Konkani and Marathi and is an ex-service man of the Indian Army. He has published four dramas in Marathi, five short story collections in Konkani, seven novels in Konkani and a novel in Marathi.
His writings, which have been translated into English, Marathi, Hindi, Malayalam and Kannada, also find a place in university textbooks.
He won the Sahitya Akademi award in 1993 for his short story collection Taranga .
