This year’s Muloor S. Padmanabha Panicker Memorial Award was presented to poet Divakaran Vishnumangalam at a function at the Muloor Memorial at Elavumthitta, near Aranmula, on Monday.
Veena George, MLA, presented the award, comprising a purse of ₹25,001 and a citation, to Mr. Vishnumangalam. K.V. Sudhakaran, State Information Commission member; N.Gopalakishna Kurup, grama panchayat president; T.K.G.Nair, District Library Council president; P.V.Muraleedharan, Muloor Memorial president, and V.Vinod, general secretary, also spoke.
Memorial event
Meanwhile, speakers at a function organised in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday in connection with the 150th birth anniversary of Muloor paid tributes to the poet and social activist.
Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran who inaugurated the function said Muloor started in the literary sphere what Sree Narayana Guru achieved by establishing the Shiva temple at Aruvippuram and consecrating the idol.
His literary works had laid the foundation for a social reform marked by breaking the caste barriers in the literary domain, he said.
“It is akin to temple entry rights in literature,” he said, adding Muloor assumed more relevance at a time when renaissance values were under threat and moves were on for a resurgence of evil practices. Presiding over the function, Muloor Foundation chairman D. Babu Paul said Muloor had upheld the vision of Sree Narayana Guru to fight inequalities in society.
Book release
The Minister released two books authored by Muloor, namely ‘Maayatha Ormakal’ and a collection of poems for children.
Foundation secretary Sahrudayan Thampi was among those who spoke.
