The Sri Raja-Lakshmi Foundation (Telugu: శ్రీ రాజా లక్ష్మీ ఫౌండేషన్) is an Indian charitable trust that promotes arts, sciences, literature, medicine, journalism, humanities and other intellectual pursuits and to honour distinguished persons in these fields. Established in 1979 in Madras by Late P. V. Ramaniah Raja, a businessman, the foundation instituted the 'Raja-Lakshmi Award'.
Erstwhile the Raja–Lakshmi Award carried a prize amount of ₹1,00,000, a citation and a plaque. The awardees also received the Dr. K. V. Rao and Dr. Jyoti Rao Award of US$2000, in association with the Telugu Fine Arts Society, New Jersey, USA. The Foundation has also instituted the 'Ratna Rao Memorial Prize' which is awarded annually to the best student in M.Sc. Chemistry at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. In 2025, the Foundation resumed the presentation of the "Lakshmi-Raja Vaidika Puraskar”.
History
The organisation, along with the Raja–Lakshmi Award, instituted awards such as the Raja–Lakshmi Literary Award (1987–1999) and "Recognise the Teacher" Award. Special awards (Raja–Lakshmi Visishta Puraskar) have also been announced on a one-off basis. 'Lakshmi-Raja Vaidika Puraskar' was instituted in 1994, coinciding with the 60th birthday of Smt. Mahalakshmi Raja, founder trustee of the Foundation. This Award honours Vedic scholars, and consists of a Citation, a plaque and a cash prize of ₹25,000/-.
These Awards were announced on August 15 (birthday of Late Smt. Mahalakshmi Raja) every year and presented at a function on November 19 (birthday of Sri Ramaniah Raja) in the same year.
Activities
The Foundation is now actively involved in charitable work in areas of Education, Education improvement, Environment, Health, Culture and assistance for special children.
Recipients
Raja-Lakshmi Award
YearAwardee Area 1979 Sri Sri Literature 1980 Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna Music 1981 Vempati Chinna Satyam Dance 1981 Nerella Venumadhav Mimicry 1982 Bapu Graphic art 1983 Yelavarthy Nayudamma Science 1984 Tanguturi Suryakumari Music and Dance 1985 Mandolin Srinivas Music 1986 G. K. Reddy Journalism 1987 Dr. B. Ramamurthi Medicine 1988 C. Narayanareddy Literature 1989 Bezawada Gopala Reddy Politics 1990 Lata Mangeshkar Music 1991 Nataraja Ramakrishna Dance 1992 Dwaram Venkataswamy Naidu Trust Music 1993 P. Sainath Journalism 1994 G. Ram Reddy Education 1995 Dr. Ambati Balamurali Krishna Medicine 1996 Abid Hussain Administration 1997 A. Chennagantamma Social service 1998 Bhanumathi Ramakrishna Actor 1999 A. S. Raman Journalism 1999 S. V. Rama Rao Art 2000 K. Sivananda Murty Social service 2001 Govindappa Venkataswamy Medicine 2002 Nedunuri Krishna Murthy Music 2003 Biruduraju Ramaraju Literature 2004 Sudha Murthy Philanthropy 2005 Malladi Chandrasekhara Sastry Vedic Scholar 2006 S P Balasubrahmanyam Cine Playback Singer 2007 Dr. Ch. Gnaneswar Memorial Endowment Fund Medicine 2008 Koneru Humpy Sports 2009 Sunita Narain Environmental Science
Raja-Lakshmi Literary Award
YearAwardee 1987 Ravuri Bharadwaja 1988 Nagabhairava Koteswara Rao 1989 Tirumala Ramachandra 1990 Ramavarapu Krishnamurthy Sastry 1991 Boyi Bhimanna 1992 Sribhashyam Appalacharyulu 1993 Mikkilineni 1994 P. S. R. Appa Rao 1995 Mullapudi Venkata Ramana 1996 Malati Chandur 1997 Mallampalli Sarabheswara Sarma 1998 K. Ramalakshmi 1999 Kothapalli Veerabhadra Rao & Dwivedula Visalakshi
Lakshmi-Raja Vaidika Puraskar
YearAwardee 1994 Brahmasri Lanka Venkata Ramasastry Somayaji 1995 Brahmasri Sannidhanam Lakshminarayana Sastry 1996 Brahmasri Dendukoori Agnihotra Somayaji 1997 Brahmasri Remella Suryaprakasa Sastry 1998 Goda Subrahmanya Sastry 1999 Brahmasri Bhamidipati Mitranarayana Yajulu 2000 Dendukuri Venkatappa Yagnanarayana Poundarika Yajulu & Samavedam Ramagopala Sastry 2001 Brahmasri Gullapalli Anjaneya Ghanapaati 2002 Brahmasri Evani Ramakrishna Ghanaapati 2003 Brahmasri Adithe Suryanarayana Murty 2004 Dr. Vishnubhatla Subrahmanya Sastry 2005 ‘Veda Vibushana’ Kuppa Siva Subrahmanya Avadhani 2006 Sripada Srirama Nrusimha & Sripada Krishnamurthy Ghanaapati 2007 Gullapalli Venkata Narayana Ghanaapati 2008 R. Venkatrama Ghanapaati 2009 Vangala Ramamurthy Ghanapaati 2010 Dendukuri Venkata Hanumadganaapati Somayaji 2011 Yanamandra Subrahmanya Somayajulu 2012 Vishnubhotla Sriramamurthy Sastry 2013 Kuppa Ramagopala Vajpeyi 2014 Dendukuri Venkateswara Ghanapaati 2025 Gullapalli Sitamaramachandra Murthy Ghanapaati
Raja-Lakshmi Recognise the Teacher Award YearAwardee 1997 Dr.Jaya Venugoapala Rao 1998 K S Anand 1999 Gulla Usha Bala
Raja-Lakshmi Visishta Puraskar YearAwardee 1983 Palagummi Padmaraju 1992 M. S. Bharat 1998 Bhavaraju Sarveswara Rao 2002 Gollapudi Maruthi Rao 2004 Bapu & Ramana 2008 Garimella Balakrishna Prasad
V.Ratna Rao Memorial Prize YearAwardee 2001 D. Vasumathi 2002 Iyer Karthik Srinivasan 2003 Nandini Ananth 2004 Samanwita Pal 2005 S. Ashok 2006 Sayani Chattopadhyay 2007 Rakesh Paul 2008 Krishnendu Saha 2009 Sovan Biswas 2010 Sourav Maiti 2011 Prem Kumar Chanani 2012 R.Srinivasan 2013 Avijit Baidya 2014 Sayan Dutta 2015 Manisha Samanta 2016 Anindita Mahapatra 2017 Nisha 2018 Ruchira Basu 2019 Atanu Ghosh 2020 Deeksha 2021 Mehak Oberoi 2022 Sunaina Sardana 2023 Khusboo Goel 2024 Hiba Sherin P K 2025 Ayushi Tripathi
Memorial lectures delivered
YearAwardee 2002 A. Prasanna Kumar 2003 Ajeya Kallam 2004 Dr. B.P. Rajan 2005 T.V. Sairam & B.M. Rao 2006 K. Sivaprasad Gupta 2007 K. Chaya Devi, Dr. K. Venkateswarulu & T.A. Venkateswaran 2008 Dr. Perala Balamurali 2009 Dr. Kanthamani Sundharkrishnan
Publications
S.No. Year Name of Publication Author 01 1985 Bhaja Govindam Dr.Pappu Venugopala Rao 02 1986 Sundara Kandamu Usha Sri 03 1987 Leela Krishnudu Indraganti Srikantha Sarma 04 1988 Nityarchana Dr.Pappu Venugopala Rao 05 1990 Sri Mata Sri Mataji Thyagisanandapuri 06 1992 Aatma Bodha Karidehal Venkata Rao 07 1996 Sanatsu Jateeya Sourabham Prof.Salaaka Raghunadha Sarma 08 2000 Sivananda Lahari Hamsa Prof.Salaaka Raghunadha Sarma 09 2006 Pratibha Panchamrutham Rambhatla Nrusimha Sarma 10 2006 Ramadas and Thyagaraja Prof. A. Prasanna Kumar
External links
Newspaper Articles Build wealth without destroying environment, The Hindu, Friday, Nov 20, 2009 Raja-Lakshmi award for Sunita Narain, The Hindu, Saturday, Aug 15, 2009 Stress on regular eye check-up, The Hindu, Thursday, March 12, 2009 Raja-Lakshmi Foundation awards presented, The Hindu, Thursday, November 20, 2008 "Raja-Lakshmi Award", Young World, The Hindu, Tuesday, August 19, 2008 Sharath, Humpy to receive award, The Hindu, Friday, August 15, 2008 Chess prodigy, table tennis player to get Raja-Lakshmi award , The Hindu, Thursday, August 14, 2008 Raja-Lakshmi Award presented, The Hindu, Tuesday, November 20, 2007 Lending it the S.P Touch, The Hindu, Nov 21, 2006 Raja-Lakshmi award for S.P. Balasubrahmanyam, The Hindu, August 15, 2006 Malladi Chandrasekhara Sastry selected for Raja-Lakshmi award, The Hindu, August 15, 2005