| Nepali Sahitya Sammelan | |
| Native Name: | नेपाली साहित्य सम्मेलन, दार्जिलिङ |
| Native Name Lang: | ne |
| Purpose: | Preservation, promotion and uplifting of Nepali language |
| Headquarters: | Darjeeling, West Bengal, India |
| Location Country: | India |
| Location City2: | Darjeeling |
| Coordinates: | 27.0423°N 88.2644°W |
| Language: | Nepali |
Nepali Sahitya Sammelan is an organisation dedicated to promotion of Nepali literature in India. It was formed on 25 May 1924 in Darjeeling, a Nepali speaking town in West Bengal state of India.
The organisation was awarded with Jagadamba Shree Puraskar for the year, for preservation, promotion and uplifting of Nepali language.[1] The organisation conducts various conferences, publish books and journals and works for the overall preservation of Nepali literature.
The organisation was formed on 25 May 1924 after a public assembly by eminent Nepali scholars Surya Bikram Gyawali, Dharanidhar Koirala, Parasmani Pradhan as well as other contemporaries.[2] A session was then held on 27 July 1924, outlining the objectives of the organisation.
On the completion of three year of the organisation, Parasmani Pradhan prepared a three-year report listing the history and activities of the organisation. According to the report, in the first three year of the organisation, there were eleven lifetime members and twenty two general members. General membership was provided to those who paid a fee of six rupees annually and lifetime membership of the Nepali Literature Conference was distributed to those who paid a sum of fifty rupees at once. The organisation had members from Nepal, the British India and the United Kingdom. Some of the non Nepali members of the organisation were Kalimpong scholar John Anderson Graham, Brigadier General Charles Granville Bruce of London, as well as Ralph Lilley Turner, professor of Sanskrit at the SOAS University of London.[3]
The objectives of the organisation are given as:
The organisation holds various conferences and literary meetings occasionally. The organisation also organises Bhanu Jayanti, the birth anniversary of Bhanubhakta Acharya, on 13 July every year in Darjeeling with huge fervour.[4]
The organisation installed a bust of Bhanubhakta on 17 June 1949 in the main square of Darjeeling. The installation was one of the first and led to a series of Bhanubhakta's bust and statues being installed all over various parts of Nepal and India. The bust was sculpted by a Norwegian sculptor. The original bust was beheaded on 10 July 1992 by the anti–Gorkhaland faction. A life size statue was then installed in the same place on 13 July 1996 (29 Asar 2053 BS).[5]
The organisation also present various literary awards every year.