Prof Lokesh Chandra conferred with Dayawati Modi Award

Dayawati Modi Foundation has awarded Prof Lokesh Chandra,the contemporary scholar of Buddhism with the prestigious ‘Dayawati Modi Award for Art, Culture and Education’ for the year 2008 in recognition of his lifetime contribution towards Indian thought and culture and to the cultural bonds of India with other countries of the East and West. Mr Shivraj Patil, Hon’ble Minister of Home Affairs, conferred the award to Prof Lokesh Chandra at an event held on Monday (Nov 17) in the capital with Mr K.M. Singh, Member, National Disaster Management Authority as the Guest of Honour.

The award comprising a cash prize of Rs. 2.51 lakh, a silver shield and scroll of honour, is presented to Prof Lokesh Chandra on the occasion of the 93rd birth anniversary of Late Smt. Dayawati Modi.

Professor Lokesh Chandra, born in 1927, son of legendary Prof. Raghu Vira is one of the free India’s most outstanding scholars of Indic culture and civilization. He has made signal contributions to the understanding of Asian cultures as they evolved out of the multi-dimensional developments of Sanskrit and allied traditions. His work is original in conception and vast in execution. He has restored and disseminated hundreds of Sanskrit texts and thus ranked as our modern Vyasa.

Prof Lokesh Chandra joins the impressive list of previous awardees, which includes names like Amitabh Bachchan, Mother Teresa, Jagjit Singh, Pandit Jasraj, Asha Bhosle, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Tyeb Mehta and Dr. Abdul Waheed Khan.

Announcing the details for this year’s award, Mr. Satish Kumar Modi, President of Dayawati Modi Foundation said, “It takes great pleasure in conferring the Dayawati Modi Award on Prof Lokesh Chandra who has made whole generation alive to the immensity of ideas in the vastness of time and has been the voice of faith and hope in the vibrant future of mankind.”

Dayawati Modi Award is among the highest cash awards in the country in the field of Art, Culture and Education. The award has been instituted by the Dayawati Modi Foundation for Art, Culture and Education of the Modi group in the memory of Late Smt. Dayawati Modi, wife of Late Rai Bahadur Gujar Mal Modi, founder of the Modi Group. Late Smt Dayawati Modi was a great philanthropist and an educationist. The Foundation has established schools and colleges, libraries and hostels for students. It also seeks to spread the knowledge of Indian art and culture through cultural shows, exhibitions and seminars. The annual Dayawati Modi Award is a step in this direction and awards a person of eminence in the field of art, culture and education.

Prof. Lokesh Chandra

Lokesh Chandra is a contemporary scholar of Buddhism and the Indian arts. He is the son of the famous Sanskrit scholar Raghu Vira. He has also served as a member of the Indian Rajya Sabha besides serving as a Vice-President of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, and Chairman of the Indian Council of Historical Research.

In 2006 he was recognised with India's Padma Bhushan award. He has to his credit over 360 works and text editions. Among them are classics like his "Tibetan-Sanskrit Dictionary", "Materials for a History of Tibetan Literature", "Buddhist Iconography of Tibet", and his "Dictionary of Buddhist Art" in about 20 volumes. Presently he is Director of International Academy of Indian Culture.

Prof. Lokesh Chandra was born in 1927 at Ambala in the Haryana state of India in an illustration family of educationist. He has studied Sanskrit the classical language of India and many other Indian languages like Bengali, Oriya, Gujarati, Kannada, Tamil and Malayalam. His brilliant career culminated in a master’s degree (M.A) in 1947 from Punjab University at Lahore. He also critically edited the Gavamayana portion of the vedic work Jaiminiya Brahmana with the help of newly discovered manuscripts. In recognition of these contributions he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Literature and Philosophy by the state University of Utrecht (Netherlands) in 1950.

His interest also extends into the domain of natural sciences. He has edited the international research journal “Advancing Frontiers of Plant Sciences” Prof. Lokesh Chandra has travelled widely all over Europe, Asia, and Russia and has participated in several international conferences. He is acknowledged as one of the great cultural giants of India.