Damayanti Beshra received the Padma Shri in 2020 for her contributions to Santali literature. She is the first woman writer in the language and is the author of 22 books in Santali, and nine in Odia. She has also translated nine books into Santali. In 2023, she published a biography in Santali of President Droupadi Murmu. From 2011-2013, she published the first Santali women's magazine, Karam Dar (Two Friends). Her poetry collection, Say Sahed (A Hundred Breaths, 2006), won her the Sahitya Akademi award in 2009. In 2021, she won the Akademi’s Translation award for her translation into Santali of Jayadeva’s Gita Govinda (2018).