Jnanpith Award

The Jnanpith Award is the oldest and the highest Indian literary award presented annually by the Bharatiya Jnanpith to an author for their "outstanding contribution towards literature". Instituted in 1961, the award is bestowed only on Indian writers writing in Indian languages included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India and English,Template:Efn with no posthumous conferral.<ref name="scheme">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

From 1965 till 1981, the award was given to the authors for their "most outstanding work" and consisted of a citation plaque, a cash prize and a bronze replica of Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of knowledge and wisdom.<ref name="JN">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news

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|CitationClass=web }}</ref> The first recipient of the award was the Malayalam writer G. Sankara Kurup who received the award in 1965 for his collection of poems, Odakkuzhal (The Bamboo Flute), published in 1950.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The rules were revised in subsequent years to consider only works published during the preceding twenty years, excluding the year for which the award was to be given and the cash prize was increased to Template:INRConvert from 1981.<ref name="Datta">Template:Cite book</ref>

Template:As of, the cash prize has been revised to Template:INRConvert. The award has been conferred upon 65 writers including eight women authors. In 1976, Bengali novelist Ashapoorna Devi became the first woman to win the award and was honoured for the 1965 novel Prothom Protishruti (The First Promise), the first in a trilogy.Template:Efn<ref>Template:Cite book

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The most recent recipient of the award is the Hindi author Vinod Kumar Shukla, awarded for the year of 2024.

Background

The Bharatiya Jnanpith, a research and cultural institute founded in 1944 by industrialist Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain of the Sahu Jain family, conceived an idea in May 1961 to start a scheme "commanding national prestige and of international standard" to "select the best book out of the publications in Indian languages". Later in November, Rama Jain, the Founder President of the Bharatiya Jnanpith, invited a few literary experts to discuss various aspects of the scheme. Jain along with Kaka Kalelkar, Harivansh Rai Bachchan, Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, Jainendra Kumar, Jagdish Chandra Mathur, Prabhakar Machwe, Akshaya Kumar Jain, and Lakshmi Chandra Jain presented the initial draft to the then President of India Rajendra Prasad who had shown interest in the scheme's implementation. The idea was also discussed at the 1962 annual sessions of the All India Gujarati Sahitya Parishad and the Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad.

On 2 April 1962, around 300 writers of various Indian languages were invited to Delhi for the two sessions conducted by Dharamvir Bharati in which the draft was finalised and later presented to Prasad. The first award selection committee meeting was scheduled on 16 March 1963 and Prasad was appointed as its president.<ref name="JN"/> However, Prasad died on 28 February 1963 and thus the scheduled meeting was chaired by Kalelkar and Sampurnanand acted as president of the committee.<ref name="JN"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The first Selection Board consisted of Kalelkar, Niharranjan Ray, Karan Singh, R. R. Diwakar, V. Raghavan, B. Gopal Reddy, Harekrushna Mahatab, Rama Jain, and Lakshmi Chandra Jain and was headed by Sampurnanand. Works that were published between 1921 and 1951 were considered for the first award. The nine language committees that were formed were to submit to the board nominations along with translations of the work into Hindi or English. The final round had four authors; Kazi Nazrul Islam (Bengali), D. V. Gundappa (Kannada), Viswanatha Satyanarayana (Telugu), and G. Sankara Kurup (Malayalam). On 19 November 1966, Kurup was presented with the citation, statue of Saraswati, and a cheque for prize of Template:INRConvert at a ceremony held at Vigyan Bhavan, Delhi.Template:Efn In his acceptance speech, Kurup appreciated the concept of the new award and thanked it for bringing "integration of the diverse people of this land on a spiritual plane".<ref name=Bhaskaramenon>Template:Cite book</ref>

Rules and selection process

The nominations for the award are received from various literary experts, teachers, critics, universities, and numerous literary and language associations. Every three years, an advisory committee is constituted for each of the languages.<ref name="JN"/> The language of the most recent recipient's work is not eligible for consideration for the next two years.<ref name="scheme"/> Each committee consists of three literary critics and scholars of their respective languages. All the nominations are scrutinised by the committee and their recommendations are submitted to the Jnanpith Award Selection Board.

The Selection Board consists of between seven and eleven members of "high repute and integrity". Each member is part of the committee for a term of three years which can also be extended further for two more terms.<ref name="JN"/> The recommendations of all language advisory committees are evaluated by the board based on complete or partial translations of the selected writings of the proposed writers into Hindi or English. The recipient for a particular year is announced by the Selection Board, which has final authority in selection.<ref name="scheme"/>

List of recipients

Key

†	Indicates a joint award for the given year

File:G.shankarakurup.jpg

G. Sankara Kurup was the first recipient of the award.

citation

CitationClass=web }}</ref>	Year	Recipient(s)	Language(s)	Template:Tooltip
1965 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Template:Efn<ref name="outlook1965-2001">Template:Cite magazine</ref>
1966 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Template:Efn<ref name="outlook1965-2001"/>
1967 Template:Small †	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Template:Efn<ref name="outlook1965-2001"/>
	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Template:Efn<ref name="outlook1965-2001"/>
1968 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Template:Efn<ref name="outlook1965-2001"/>
1969 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Template:Efn<ref name="outlook1965-2001"/>
1970 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Template:Efn<ref name="outlook1965-2001"/>
1971 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Template:Efn<ref name="outlook1965-2001"/>
1972 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Template:Efn<ref name="outlook1965-2001"/>
1973 Template:Small †	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Template:Efn<ref name="outlook1965-2001"/>
	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Template:Efn<ref name="outlook1965-2001"/>
1974 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Template:Efn<ref name="outlook1965-2001"/>
1975 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Template:Efn<ref name="outlook1965-2001"/>
1976 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Template:Efn<ref name="outlook1965-2001"/>
1977 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Template:Efn<ref name="outlook1965-2001"/>
1978 Template:Small	Sachchidananda Vatsyayan 'Agyeya'	Template:Sort	Template:Efn<ref name="outlook1965-2001"/>
1979 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Template:Efn<ref name="outlook1965-2001"/>
1980 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Template:Efn<ref name="outlook1965-2001"/>
1981 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Template:Efn<ref name="outlook1965-2001"/>
1982 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Template:Efn<ref name="JP82">Template:Cite news</ref>
1983 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	<ref name="JP83">Template:Cite news</ref>
1984 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	<ref name="JP84">Template:Cite magazine</ref>
1985 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Template:Sfn
1986 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	<ref name="JP86">Template:Cite news</ref>
1987 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Template:Sfn
1988 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	<ref name="JP88">Template:Cite news</ref>
1989 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	<ref name="JP89">Template:Cite magazine</ref>
1990 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	<ref name="JP90">Template:Cite magazine</ref>
1991 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	<ref name="JP91">Template:Cite news</ref>
1992 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Template:Sfn
1993 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	<ref name="JP93">Template:Cite news</ref>
1994 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	<ref name="JP94">Template:Cite news</ref>
1995 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Template:Sfn
1996 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	<ref name="JP96">Template:Cite press release</ref>
1997 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	<ref name="JP97">Template:Cite press release</ref>
1998 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	<ref name="JP98">Template:Cite press release Template:Cite magazine</ref>
1999 Template:Small †	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	<ref name="JP99">Template:Cite news</ref>
	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	<ref name="JP99"/>
2000 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	<ref name="JP00">Template:Cite press release</ref>
2001 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	<ref name="JP01">Template:Cite news</ref>
2002 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	<ref name="JP02">Template:Cite news</ref>
2003 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	<ref name="JP03">Template:Cite press release</ref>
2004 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	<ref name="JP04">Template:Cite press release</ref>
2005 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	<ref name="JP0506">Template:Cite press release</ref>
2006 Template:Small †	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	<ref name="JP0506"/>
	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	<ref name="JP0506"/>
2007 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	<ref name="JP07">Template:Cite press release</ref>
2008 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	<ref name="JP08">Template:Cite news</ref>
2009 Template:Small †	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	<ref name="JP09">Template:Cite news</ref>
	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	<ref name="JP09"/>
2010 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	<ref name="JP10">Template:Cite press release</ref>
2011 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	<ref name="JP11">Template:Cite press release</ref>
2012 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	<ref name="JP12">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
2013 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	<ref name="JP13">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
2014 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	<ref name="JP14">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
2015 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	<ref name="JP15">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
2016 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	<ref name="JP16">Template:Cite news</ref>
2017 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	<ref name="JP17">Template:Cite news</ref>
2018 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	<ref name="JP18">Template:Cite news</ref>
2019 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Malayalam	<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
2021 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	<ref name="JPAK">Template:Cite news</ref> <ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
2022 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
2023 Template:Small †	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	<ref name="Gulzar, Sanskrit scholar Rambhadracharya selected for Jnanpith Award">Template:Cite news</ref>
2024 Template:Small	Template:Sortname	Hindi	<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Jnanpith recipients by language

Out of twenty-three eligible languages, the award has been presented for works in sixteen languages. The 65 Jnanpith awardees from 1965 to 2024 wrote in the following languages:

Language	Number
Hindi	12
Kannada	8
Bengali	6
Malayalam	6
Urdu	5
Gujarati	4
Marathi	4
Odia	4
Assamese	3
Telugu	3
Konkani	2
Punjabi	2
Sanskrit	2
Tamil	2
English	1
Kashmiri	1
Bodo	0
Dogri	0
Maithili	0
Manipuri	0
Nepali	0
Santali	0
Sindhi	0

See also

• Moortidevi Award, another annual literary award conferred by the Bharatiya Jnanpith.

Bibliography

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Further reading

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External links

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