The Jnanpith Award is the oldest and the highest Indian literary award presented annually by the

Bharatiya Jnanpith Bharatiya Jnanpith a literary and research organization, based in New Delhi, India, was founded on February 18, 1944Encyclopaedia of Indian literature vol. 1, p. 298 1987, Sahitya Akademi, by Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain of the Sahu Jain family and h ...

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 The Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India lists the languages officially recognized by the Government of India. , 22 languages have been classified under the schedule. Definition As per the Constitution of India, the provisions belongi ...

and English, with no posthumous conferral. 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 Saraswati (, ), also spelled as Sarasvati, is one of the principal Devi, goddesses in Hinduism, revered as the goddess of knowledge, education, learning, arts, speech, poetry, music, purification, language and culture. Together with the godde ...

, the

Hindu goddess Hindu deities are the gods and goddesses in Hinduism. Deities in Hinduism are as diverse as its traditions, and a Hindu can choose to be polytheistic, pantheistic, monotheistic, monistic, even agnostic, atheistic, or humanist. Julius J. Lip ...

of knowledge and wisdom. The first recipient of the award was the Malayalam writer

G. Sankara Kurup G. Sankara Kurup, (3 June 1901 – 2 February 1978) also referred to as Mahakavi G (The Great Poet G), was an Indian poet, essayist and literary critic of Malayalam literature. Known as one of the greats of Malayalam poetry, he was the first r ...

who received the award in 1965 for his collection of poems, Odakkuzhal (''The Bamboo Flute''), published in 1950. 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 from 1981. , the cash prize has been revised to . The award has been conferred upon 65 writers including eight women authors. In 1976, Bengali novelist

Ashapoorna Devi Ashapurna Devi (8 January 1909 – 12 July 1995), also Ashapoorna Devi or Ashapurna Debi, was a prominent Indian novelist and poet in Bengali. In 1976, she was awarded the Jnanpith Award and Padma Shri by the Government of India, D.Litt. by ...

became the first woman to win the award and was honoured for the 1965 novel ''

Prothom Protishruti ''Prothom Protishruti'' (; ), also spelled Pratham Pratishruti, is a 1964 Bengali novel by Ashapurna Devi. Considered to be Devi's magnum opus, it tells a story of Satyabati who was given away in marriage at the age of eight to maintain the s ...

'' (''The First Promise''), the first in a trilogy. The most recent recipient of the award is the

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

author

Vinod Kumar Shukla Vinod Kumar Shukla (born 1 January 1937) is a modern Hindi writer known for his style that often borders on magic-realism. His works include the novels ''Naukar ki Kameez'' (which has been made into the film of the same name by Mani Kaul) an ...

, awarded for the year of 2024.

Background

The

, a research and cultural institute founded in 1944 by industrialist

Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain was an Indian industrialist and philanthropist. He was the son-in-law of Ramkrishna Dalmia and former chairman of Bennett, Coleman. His family, Sahu Jains, owns the Times of India newspaper group. Early age and edu ...

of the

Sahu Jain family The Sahu Jain family is an industrial family of India. They own Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. (commonly known as The Times Group), which owns ''The Times of India'', the most-circulated English-language newspaper in the world. The members of th ...

, 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 Dattatreya Balkrishna Kalelkar (1 December 1885 – 21 August 1981), popularly known as Kaka Kalelkar, was an Indian independence activist, social reformer, journalist and an eminent follower of the philosophy and methods of Mahatma Gandhi. B ...

Harivansh Rai Bachchan Harivansh Rai Bachchan (; 27 November 1907 18 January 2003) was an Indian poet and writer of the Nayi Kavita literary movement (romantic upsurge) of early 20th century Hindi literature. He was also a poet of the Hindi Kavi Sammelan. He is be ...

Ramdhari Singh Dinkar Ramdhari Singh (23 September 1908 – 24 April 1974), known by his pen name Dinkar, was an Indian Hindi language poet, essayist, freedom fighter, patriot and academic. He emerged as a poet of rebellion as a consequence of his nationalist ...

, Jainendra Kumar, Jagdish Chandra Mathur, Prabhakar Machwe, Akshaya Kumar Jain, and Lakshmi Chandra Jain presented the initial draft to the then

President of India The president of India (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, and the commander-in-chief, supreme commander of the Indian Armed ...

Rajendra Prasad Rajendra Prasad (3 December 1884 – 28 February 1963) was an Indian politician, lawyer, journalist and scholar who served as the first president of India from 1950 to 1962. He joined the Indian National Congress during the Indian independen ...

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 Dharamvir Bharati (25 December 1926 – 4 September 1997) was a renowned Hindi poet, author, playwright and a social thinker of India. He was the chief editor of the popular Hindi weekly magazine '' Dharmayug'', from 1960 till 1987.The Illustr ...

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. However, Prasad died on 28 February 1963 and thus the scheduled meeting was chaired by Kalelkar and

Sampurnanand Sampurnanand (1 January 1891 – 10 January 1969) was an Indian teacher and politician who served as the second Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh from 1954 until 1960, and later as Governor of Rajasthan. Serving for five years and 344 days, he ...

acted as president of the committee. The first Selection Board consisted of Kalelkar,

Niharranjan Ray Niharranjan Ray (14 January 1903 – 30 August 1981) was an Indian Bengali historian, well known for his works on the history of art and Indian history. Early life and education He was born on 14 January 1903 at Kayetgram village of Mymensingh ...

Karan Singh Karan Singh (born 9 March 1931) is an Indian politician and philosopher. He is the titular Maharaja of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. From 1952 to 1965 he was the '' Sadr-i-Riyasat'' (President) of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. ...

, R. R. Diwakar, V. Raghavan, B. Gopal Reddy,

Harekrushna Mahatab Harekrushna Mahatab (born Harekrushna Das, 21 November 1899 – 2 January 1987) was the leader of the Indian National Congress, a notable figure in the Indian independence movement and the Chief Minister of Odisha from 1946 to 1950 and from 1956 ...

, 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 Kazi Nazrul Islam (24 May 1899 – 29 August 1976) was a Bengalis, Bengali poet, short story writer, journalist, lyricist and musician. He is the national poet of Bangladesh. Nazrul produced a List of works by Kazi Nazrul Islam, large body of ...

(Bengali), D. V. Gundappa (Kannada), Viswanatha Satyanarayana (Telugu), and

(Malayalam). On 19 November 1966, Kurup was presented with the citation, statue of

, and a cheque for prize of at a ceremony held at

Vigyan Bhavan Vigyan Bhawan ("science home") is a premier conference centre of the Government of India in New Delhi. Built in 1956, over the years it has been the venue of conferences of national and international stature, seminars and award ceremonies atten ...

, Delhi. 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".

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. The language of the most recent recipient's work is not eligible for consideration for the next two years. 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. 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.

List of recipients

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:

Notes

References

Bibliography

External links

* {{featured list Indian literary awards Awards established in 1961 * 1961 establishments in Delhi