Surjit Patar a Punjabi poet has been selected for the coveted Saraswati Samman for his poetry collection ''Lafzan Di Dargah''. The award, constituted by K K Birla Foundation, carries a cash bag of Rs five lakh, a citation and a plaque. 65-year-old Patar has been chosen for the award for 2009 by a 13-member jury led by former Chief Justice G B Patnaik. Lafzan Di Dargah, the Punjabi poetry collection which was selected for the award, was published in 2003. Saraswati Samman is given every year to an outstanding literary work written in any Indian language and published in the last ten years. The first recipient of the award was Harivansh Rai Bachchan in 1991 for his autobiography. Other awardees include Marathi playwright Vijay Tendulkar, Malayalam poetess Balamaniamma, Bengali novelist Sunil Gangopadhyay, Urdu literary critic Shamsur Rahman Faruqi, Sanskrit poet G C Pande and Oriya poet Ramakanta Rath. Patar, who is counted among the most esteemed Punjabi poets of 20th century, appeared in the literary circle in the mid-sixties with his own style and attracted attention not only of the academic circles but also of common people. Patar, whose works are a rare combination of simplicity and profundity, has inherited the influence of Gurbani and Sufi poetry. Some critics call him the "heartthrob" of Punjab as his poetry is an internal journey which documents in a very sensitive manner Punjab of his times, starting from partition and passing through the crisis in 1980s when Khalistan movement was at its peak. Lafzan Di Dargah, like his other collections, has a wide range of poetic forms which includes verses written in very strict meter as well as blank and free verse।