OD
The Samantha Gema Creative Award will be presented by the Utkala Sahitya Samaj whose life-long contribution to orthodox literature is outstanding..

History

In 1919 Cuttack Municipality gifted a small piece of tax free land situated on the right side of the cuttack town hall for the construction of a house for Utkal Sahitya Samaj. The King of Ali (AUL) Rajasaheb Brajasunder Dev gave Rs . 3000/- (Three Thousand Rupees) in two instalments for this purpose. The king of Sukinda promised to supply the necessary wood for the construction of the house. Sri Arjun Bhuyan , the state engineer of Mayurbhanj prepared its map. For the construction of the house the king of Bamanda, Sachidananda Tribhubhan Dev and his descendants gifted Rs.3333/- , five “annas” and four “Pahulas” and the Mahanta of Emarmath gifted Rs. 500/-. The rest amount of Rs. 6000.00/- (Rupees Six Thousand) for the construction of the house was provided by Maharaja Purnachandra Bhanja Dev of Mayurbhanj and the newly constructed house was named “ SRI RAMACHANDRA BHAWAN” in memory of his father Sri Ramchandra Bhanja. Maharaja Purnachandra Chandra Bhanja Dev inaugurated “SRI RAMACHANDRA BHAWAN “ on 22nd April 1928. That year the annual meeting of the organization was held in the newly constructed “SRI RAMACHANDRA BHAWAN”.