The Jnanpith Award is one of the oldest and highest literary awards, given annually by the Bharatiya Jnanpith to the best creative literary writing or an author for their outstanding contribution towards literature in any of the 22 scheduled languages recognized in the Indian Constitution and, since 2013, in the English language.
The Jnanpith Award was started in 1961, and the first award was presented in 1965. From 1965 to 1981, the awards were given for the “most outstanding work” and included a citation plaque, a cash prize, and a bronze replica of Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of knowledge.
In 1981, the rules were updated to consider works from the preceding 20 years (excluding the award year), and the cash prize was raised to ₹1.5 lakh (equivalent to ₹31 lakh or US$36,000 in 2023) from 1981.
As of 2015, the cash prize increased to ₹11 lakh (equivalent to ₹17 lakh or US$20,000 in 2023). A total of 65 writers have received the award, including eight women. Ashapoorna Devi became the first woman winner in 1976 for her 1965 novel Prothom Protishruti (The First Promise).
The most recent recipient of the award is the Hindi author Vinod Kumar Shukla, awarded for the year 2024.
History & Background of Jnanpith Award
The Jnanpith Award was founded by Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain, the founder of the Bharatiya Jnanpith, a research and cultural institute established in 1944. He wanted to institute an award that would recognize and celebrate the outstanding contributions of Indian winners.
The first Jnanpith Award recipient was a Malayalam writer, G. Sankara Kurup, in 1965 for his 1950 poetry collection Odakkuzhal (The Bamboo Flute). Since then, the award has been given to many of India’s most renowned writers. This includes Rabindranath Tagore, Premchand, R.K. Narayan, and Arundhati Roy.
List of Winners of Janapith Awards From 1965 to 2023
Here we curated a list of the winners of the Jnanpeeta Awards from 1965 to 2023 across different languages in India.
| Year | Name | Language |
| 1965 (1st) | G. Sankara Kurup | Malayalam |
| 1966 (2nd) | Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay | Bengali |
| 1967 (3rd) | Umashankar Joshi | Gujarati |
| Kuppali Venkatappa Puttappa ‘Kuvempu’ | Kannada | |
| 1968 (4th) | Sumitranandan Pant | Hindi |
| 1969 (5th) | Firaq Gorakhpuri | Urdu |
| 1970 (6th) | Viswanatha Satyanarayana | Telugu |
| 1971 (7th) | Bishnu Dey | Bengali |
| 1972 (8th) | Ramdhari Singh ‘Dinkar’ | Hindi |
| 1973 (9th) | D. R. Bendre | Kannada |
| Gopinath Mohanty | Odia | |
| 1974 (10th) | Vishnu Sakharam Khandekar | Marathi |
| 1975 (11th) | Akilan | Tamil |
| 1976 (12th) | Ashapoorna Devi | Bengali |
| 1977 (13th) | K. Shivaram Karanth | Kannada |
| 1978 (14th) | Sachchidananda Vatsyayan | Hindi |
| 1979 (15th) | Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya | Assamese |
| 1980 (16th) | S. K. Pottekkatt | Malayalam |
| 1981 (17th) | Amrita Pritam | Punjabi |
| 1982 (18th) | Mahadevi Varma | Hindi |
| 1983 (19th) | Masti Venkatesha Iyengar | Kannada |
| 1984 (20th) | Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai | Malayalam |
| 1985 (21st) | Pannalal Patel | Gujarati |
| 1986 (22nd) | Sachidananda Routray | Odia |
| 1987 (23rd) | Vishnu Vaman Shirwadkar ‘Kusumagraj’ | Marathi |
| 1988 (24th) | C. Narayana Reddy | Telgu |
| 1989 (25th) | Qurratulain Hyder | Urdu |
| 1990 (26th) | Vinayaka Krishna Gokak | Kannada |
| 1991 (27th) | Subhash Mukhopadhyay | Bengali |
| 1992 (28th) | Naresh Mehta | Hindi |
| 1993 (29th) | Sitakant Mahapatra | Odia |
| 1994 (30th) | U. R. Ananthamurthy | Kannada |
| 1995 (31st) | M. T. Vasudevan Nair | Malayalam |
| 1996 (32nd) | Mahasweta Devi | Bengali |
| 1997 (33rd) | Ali Sardar Jafri | Urdu |
| 1998 (34th) | Girish Karnad | Kannada |
| 1999 (35th) | Nirmal Verma | Hindi |
| Gurdial Singh | Punjabi | |
| 2000 (36th) | Mamoni Raisom Goswami | Assamese |
| 2001 (37th) | Rajendra Shah | Gujarati |
| 2002 (38th) | Jayakanthan | Tamil |
| 2003 (39th) | Vinda Karandikar | Marathi |
| 2004 (40th) | Rehman Rahi | Kashmiri |
| 2005 (41st) | Kunwar Narayan | Hindi |
| 2006 (42nd) | Ravindra Kelekar | Konkani |
| Satya Vrat Shastri | Sanskrit | |
| 2007 (43rd) | O. N. V. Kurup | Malayalam |
| 2008 (44th) | Akhlaq Mohammed Khan ‘Shahryar’ | Urdu |
| 2009 (45th) | Amarkant | Hindi |
| Sri Lal Sukla | Hindi | |
| 2010 (46th) | Chandrashekhara Kambara | Kannada |
| 2011 (47th) | Pratibha Ray | Odia |
| 2012 (48th) | Ravuri Bharadhwaja | Telugu |
| 2013 (49th) | Kedarnath Singh | Hindi |
| 2014 (50th) | Bhalchandra Nemade | Marathi |
| 2015 (51st) | Raghuveer Chaudhari | Gujarati |
| 2016 (52nd) | Shankha Ghosh | Bengali |
| 2017 (53rd) | Krishna Sobti | Hindi |
| 2018 (54th) | Amitav Ghosh | English |
| 2019 (55th) | Akkitham Achuthan Namboothiri | Malayalam |
| 2021 (56th) | Nilamani Phookan | Assamese |
| 2022 (57th) | Damodar Mauzo | Konkani |
| 2023 (58th) | Rambhadracharya | Sanskrit |
| Gulzar | Urdu |
Selection For The Jnanpith Award
The selection process for the award begins with the nominations from literary experts, critics, and institutions. Advisory committees for each language are formed every three years, review the nominations, and recommend candidates.
The Jnanpith Award Selection Board, comprising 7 to 11 distinguished members, evaluates these recommendations based on translations in Hindi or English and makes the final decision.
Jnanapeeta Awards in Kannada Winners List
Here are the Jnanapeeta awards in Kannada winners.
| Year | Name | Language |
|---|---|---|
| 1967 (3rd) | Kuppali Venkatappa Puttappa ‘Kuvempu’ | Kannada |
| 1973 (9th) | D. R. Bendre | Kannada |
| 1977 (13th) | K. Shivaram Karanth | Kannada |
| 1983 (19th) | Masti Venkatesha Iyengar | Kannada |
| 1990 (26th) | Vinayaka Krishna Gokak | Kannada |
| 1994 (30th) | U. R. Ananthamurthy | Kannada |
| 1998 (34th) | Girish Karnad | Kannada |
| 2010 (46th) | Chandrashekhara Kambara | Kannada |
Some Interesting Facts About the Jnanpith Award
- The Jnanpith Award is considered as the highest literary award in the country.
- It is given annually and is open only to Indian citizens.
- English, along with other Indian languages, is considered for the award.
- The winners of the awards received a cash prize of Rs. 11 Lakhs and a bronze replica of Goddess Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of learning.
- The first recipient of this honour is a Malayalam writer, G. Sankara Kurup in 1965 for his novel Odakkuzhal (The Bamboo Flute).
- Bengali writer Ashapoorna Devi became the first woman writer to be awarded the Jnanpith in 1976.
- This award was instituted by Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain, an industrialist and philanthropist, who established the organization in 1944.
- The Jnanpith Award was organized annually by the cultural institution Bharatiya Jnanpith.
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