Dikhyaa Mohanty 
A proud moment for the people of Odisha as renowned sculptor Sudarshan Sahoo from Odisha is among the seven awardees who will be felicitated with Padma Vibhushan. The Centre recently released the names of seven awardees that will be honoured with Padma Vibhushan this year.
Besides Sahoo other personalities being selected for Padma Vibhushan are- Rajat Kumar Kar and Nanda Prusty for their contributions in the field of Literature and Education; Shanti Devi for social work; Purnamasi Jani in the area of art and Dr Krishna Mohan Pathi for medicine.
Sculptor Sudarshan Sahoo, born on 11th March 1939 in Puri, is a born artist with traditional sculpting under Guru Bhubaneswar Mohapatra and Guru’s tutelage Kunia Moharana of Puri Town.
Later, in 1977, he developed the Sudarshan Crafts Museum, Puri in 1977 and was the also the recipient of Padma Shri in 1988 and was honoured with the Shilp Guru Award in 2003.
Even he worked at the famous Dhauli Peace Pagoda and the panels on Buddha’s life, created by him, have been installed at the Pagoda. He has also travelled worldwide to showcase work internationally. In 197 a panel sculpted by him was installed to the stone panel on Buddha’s life installed in the industrial township of Milton Keynes near London in 1980, and he also carved a panel for Hanaokayama Peace Pagoda in Japan.
India’s president approved around 119 Padma Awards including one duo case and seven Padma Vibhushan, 10 Padma Bhushan and 102 Padma Shri Awards were awarded this year.
Every year these awards are given by the President of India at ceremonial functions which are held at Rashtrapati Bhawan usually around March/ April every year.
Image Source – Google
