Jnanpith Award

The Jnanpith Award is India's most respected literary honour. It is presented by the Jnanpith Trust, which is largely owned by the Jain family, publishers of The Times of India. The award carries a cheque for Rs. 500,000, a citation plaque and a bronze replica of Vagdevi. The award was instituted in 1961. Its first recipient was Malayalam writer G Shankara Kurup in 1965. An Indian citizen who writes in any of the official languages of India is eligible for the honour.

List of Awardees

(Year - Name - Works - Language)

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• 1965 - G Sankara Kurup - Odakkuzhal (flute) - Malayalam
• 1966 - Tarashankar Bandopadhyaya - Ganadevta - Bengali
• 1967 - Dr. K.V. Puttappa - Sri Ramayana Darshanam (Glimpses of Ramayana) - Kannada
• 1967 - Uma Shankar Joshi - Nishitha - Gujarati
• 1968 - Sumitranandan Pant - Chidambara - Hindi
• 1969 - Firaq Gorakhpuri - Gul-e-Naghma - Urdu
• 1970 - Viswanatha Satyanarayana - Ramayana Kalpavrikshamu (A resourceful tree:Ramayana) - Telugu
• 1971 - Bishnu Dey - Smriti Satta Bhavishyat - Bengali
• 1972 - Ramdhari Singh 'Dinkar' - Urvashi - Hindi
• 1973 - Dattatreya Ramachandaran Bendre - Nakutanti - Kannada
• 1973 - Gopinath Mohanty - Mattimatal - Oriya
• 1974 - Vishnu Sakaram Khandekar - Yayati - Marathi
• 1975 - P.V.Akilandam - Chitttrappavai - Tamil
• 1976 - Asha Purna Devi - Pratham Pratisruti - Bengali
• 1977 - K.Shivaram Karanth - Mukkajjiya Kanasugalu (Nanny's dreams) - Kannada
• 1978 - S.H.V. Ajneya - Kitni Navon Men Kitni Bar (How many times in many boats?) - Hindi
• 1979 - Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya - Mrityunjay (Immortal) - Assamese
• 1980 - S.K. Pottekkatt - Oru Desattinte Katha (Story of a nation) - Malayalam
• 1981 - Amrita Pritam - Kagaj te Canvas - Punjabi
• 1982 - Mahadevi Varma - Hindi
• 1983 - Maasti Venkatesh Ayengar - Chikkaveera Rajendra - Kannada
• 1984 - Takazhi Sivashankara Pillai - Malayalam
• 1985 - Pannalal Patel - Gujarati
• 1986 - Sachidanand Rout Roy - Oriya
• 1987 - Vishnu Vaman Shirwadkar (Kusumagraj) - Marathi
• 1988 - Dr.C. Narayana Reddy - Telugu
• 1989 - Qurratulain Hyder - Urdu
• 1990 - V. K. Gokak - Bharatha Sindhu Rashmi - Kannada
• 1991 - Subash Mukhopadhyay - Bengali
• 1992 - Naresh Mehta - Hindi
• 1993 - Sitakant Mahapatra - Oriya
• 1994 - U.R. Ananthamurthy - Kannada
• 1995 - M.T. Vasudevan Nair - Malayalam
• 1996 - Mahasweta Devi - Bengali
• 1997 - Ali Sardar Jafri - Urdu
• 1998 - Girish Karnad - Kannada
• 1999 - Nirmal Verma - Hindi
• 1999 - Gurdial Singh - Punjabi
• 2000 - Indira Goswami - Assamese
• 2001 - Rajendra Keshavlal Shah - Gujarati
• 2002 - D. Jayakanthan - Tamil