SSC
The Bihari Puraskar, a literary award, was instituted by the K.K. Birla Foundation in which year?
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Answer: Option A — 1991
Detailed Solution
Explanation
The K.K. Birla Foundation instituted the Bihari Puraskar in 1991. It is given every year to an outstanding literary work in Hindi or Rajasthani written by a writer from Rajasthan.
The award is named after Bihari, a famous Hindi poet of the 17th century. Bihari is best known for his "Satsai" (Bihari Satsai), a collection of about 700 short couplets (dohas) in the Braj Bhasha language. The couplets are famous for packing deep meaning and beautiful imagery into just two lines, and they deal mainly with love (shringar), devotion and wisdom. Bihari wrote the Satsai at the court of Raja Jai Singh I of Amber (Jaipur), which gives the poet a close link with Rajasthan. He is counted among the major poets of the Riti Kaal (the period of courtly poetry) of Hindi literature.
The K.K. Birla Foundation, set up in 1991 by the industrialist Krishna Kumar Birla, gives three major literary awards:
The Saraswati Samman, given for an outstanding work in any Indian language of the Eighth Schedule. It is one of the most valuable literary awards in India, and its first recipient was Harivansh Rai Bachchan (1991) for his autobiography.
The Vyas Samman, given for an outstanding work in Hindi. It was first given to Ram Vilas Sharma.
The Bihari Puraskar, given to writers of Rajasthan.
Other major literary awards in India include the Jnanpith Award (given by the Bharatiya Jnanpith since 1965) and the Sahitya Akademi Award (since 1954).
Why not the other options?
- ✗1954 is the year the Sahitya Akademi was established.
- ✗1965 is the year the first Jnanpith Award was given.
- ✗2001 is not linked with this award.
💡 Exam tip
Remember the three K.K. Birla Foundation awards, all from 1991: the Saraswati Samman (all languages), the Vyas Samman (Hindi) and the Bihari Puraskar (writers of Rajasthan).💬 Discussions on this question
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Awards & Honours — Preparation
This question tests your understanding of Awards & Honours, a key topic in the General Knowledge section. The detailed solution above uses a step-by-step approach to show the reasoning, and where available, a shortcut that helps you solve similar questions in under 90 seconds during the actual exam.
This topic covers national and international awards: Bharat Ratna and the Padma awards, gallantry awards, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, Jnanpith and Sahitya Akademi awards, sports awards, Nobel Prizes, the Ramon Magsaysay Award and other global honours, along with the fields they recognise and notable winners. Static questions ask about the field each award is given for, the year it started, and the first winners. For example, the Jnanpith Award is for literature and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award is for cinema. Questions on recent winners change every year, so revise those from the latest announcements and treat older winner lists as background only. Practise the awards and honours questions below, written in the style of the general awareness sections of exams such as SSC, banking, railways, CUET GAT, MAH CET and CLAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation that adds related facts, so every question helps you revise more than one point.