Manipuri dance doyen Rajkumar Singhajit Singh bags Tagore Award

New Delhi [India], Oct 26 (ANI): Considered as a doyen of Manipuri, Rajkumar Singhajit Singh has been selected for the Tagore Award for Cultural Harmony for the year 2014.
The artist has distinguished himself as an outstanding teacher, performer, and choreographer and his work bears witness to his creativity within the framework of traditional Manipuri dance.
His choreography has been enriched by varied elements from different forms of performing arts of Manipur including Thang-ta, Nata-Sankirtana, Lai-haraoba and Rasleela.
The award recognizes his contribution in keeping the tradition of Manipuri dance alive, energetic and vibrant, promoting harmony through dance and also pays tribute to Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, who was deeply influenced by Manipuri dance and made it an integral part of the education curriculum at Visva Bharati.
The Tagore Award for Cultural Harmony for the years 2015 and 2016 is being conferred to Chhayanaut (a cultural organization of Bangladesh) and to one of India's greatest sculptors, Ram Vanji Sutar.
The jury, under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and comprising of the Chief Justice of India, Justice Ranjan Gogoi, N. Gopalaswami and Dr. Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, after detailed discussions on October 24, 2018, unanimously decided to select Rajkumar Singhajit Singh, Chhayanaut and Shri Ram Vanji Sutar to be the recipients of the Tagore Award for the years 2014, 2015 and 2016, respectively.
The annual award was instituted by the Government of India during the commemoration of 150th Birth Anniversary of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore.
The first Tagore Award was conferred to Pt. Ravi Shankar, the Indian sitar maestro in 2012 and second was conferred to Zubin Mehta in 2013. The award carries an amount of Rs. 1 crore, a citation in a scroll, a plaque as well as an exquisite traditional handicraft. (ANI)