Isaignani Ilaiyaraaja who has walked right into our hearts with his melodious hits, is one of the most respected and talented musicians of the country. He has been a recipient of the Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan awards by the Government of India in 2010 and 2018 respectively.
Now, the music maestro Ilaiyaraaja was honoured by the Harivarasanam Award for 2020 by the Kerala Government. The State Tourism minister, Kadakampally Surendran presented the award, comprising a cash prize of Rs One lakh, citation and a plaque, at a function at Sabarimala Sannidhanam on Wednesday.
The Harivarasanam award is given to those people who have contributed to propagate the spirit of secularism, equanimity and universal brotherhood. And accordingly, the Maestro bagged this year’s place.
The first recipient of the Harivarasanam award was KJ Yesudas. The other recipients are KG Jayan (2013), M Jayachandran (2014), SP Balasubrahmanyam (2015), MG Sreekumar (2016), Gangai Amaran (2017), KS Chitra (2018), and P Susheela (2019).