HARIVARASANAM AWARD

Harivarasanam:

• 'Harivarasanam' is a Malayalam devotional song written in eight stanzas, called 'Ashtakam'.
  
  
• It was written by Kambakudi Kulathur Srinivasa Iyer, a guruswami, in 1947.
  
  
• It is recited at Sabarimala (the principal Ayyappan pilgrimage site), before closing the temple door every night.
  
  

Harivarasanam Award:

• Criteria: The award is given to a person for their contribution to propagate the spirit of secularism, equanimity, and universal brotherhood of Sabarimala through the songs.
  
  
• Cash prize: ₹1,00,000.
  
  
• Instituted by: Kerala state government and the Travancore Devaswom Board.
  
  
• Instituted in: 2012.
  
  
• Previous recipients of the award: KJ Yesudas (2012), KG Jayan (2013), M Jayachandran (2014), SP Balasubrahmanyam (2015), MG Sreekumar (2016), Gangai Amaran (2017) and KS Chitra (2018) and P Susheela (2019).