New Delhi, Nov 5 : Union Law Minister and accomplished writer, Veerappa Moily, has been declared the winner of the prestigious Moortidevi Award for his book Shri Ramayan Mahaniveshanam, which is considered as the best Ramayana in Kannada after Kuvempu’s.

The Moortidevi Award is considered the most prestigious literary award in the country after the Bharatiya Jnanpith.

This award is presented every year for a contemplative or creative work, which expresses, underlines and illumines human values rooted in the broad vision of Indian philosophy and cultural heritage.

The objective of the Award is to foster social and individual commitment to higher values of life through the medium of literature in its larger sense.

Moily gets the 21st edition of the Moortidevi Award, while the 20th edition of the award goes to Krishna Bihari Mishra for Kalpataru ke Utsav Leela.

The Bharatiya Jnanpith said in a statement released on Wednesday that Moily and Mishra were chosen unanimously for the honour at a meeting of the award selection board held under the chairmanship of T N Chaturvedi.

The selection committee comprised former Sahitya Akademi secretary K Satchidanandan, Jnanpith awardee Sanskrit scholar Satyavarat Shastri, former Moortidevi Award winning Oriya writer Pratibha Ray, eminent linguist Vrishabha Prasad Jain, Sahu Akhilesh Jain and Ravindra Kalia.

The Hindi version of Moily’s book has been brought out by Rajkamal Prakashan Pvt Ltd, and is translated from Kannada by Pradhan Gurudatta. (ANI)