Awards

Although Maharana Sajjan Singh (r. 1874-1884 CE) passed away prematurely at a very young age, his achievement and contributions to the State of Mewar were unparalleled. He provided electrification and piped drinking water and established a municipal council in the city of Udaipur. He created the Sajjan Niwas Garden and employed foreign gardeners to cultivate it. He personally drew maps and drawings of buildings he designed and constructed which astonished qualified engineers. 

Maharana Sajjan Singh founded a printing press called ’Sajjan Mudranalaya’ and ’Sajjan Kirti Sudhakar’, a weekly journal was published from there. A library was created, under the guidance of ’Kavi Raja Shamaldasji’ in the palace grounds of ’Sajjan Vani Vilas’, where several academic collections in Sanskrit, Hindi and English were maintained.

It was here that Kavi wrote one of the most important works on Mewar history called ’Veer Vinod’ and organised weekly poetry readings. Learned scholars who visited Udaipur during his time were given great respect and support. He was greatly influenced by Swami Dayanand Saraswati and accepted to become Chairman of the ’Arya Samaj’s Representative Council’. 

Maharana Sajjan Singh Award is a State Award. This award was instituted to honour work of permanent value to society through the medium of paintings, fine art, sculpture, architecture and craft.

This Annual State Award consists of:

1.  A Ceremonial Shawl.

2.  A ’Toran’ plaque of honour.

3.  A Citation Certificate.

4.  Cash Award of  ₹ 51,001 each*.

* No. of recipients will be decided by the selection committee.