What is the Jnanpith Award called?
The 'Jnanpith Award' is the highest award given for Indian literature by the Bharatiya Jnanpith Trust. The Bharatiya Jnanpith Award was established in the year 1965. Any person of the country who writes in any of the 22 languages mentioned in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution of India is eligible for this award. Till now Hindi and Kannada language writers have received this honor for the maximum number of times. In 1965, Malayalam writer G Shankar Kurup was awarded the first Jnanpith Award.
Brief information about Jnanpith Award:
| Category of the award | Literature |
| Establishment Year | 1965 |
| Prize Money | Rs 11 lakh |
| 1st winner | G Shankar Kurup (Malayalam ) |
| India's first woman winner | Ashapurna Devi (Bengali) |
| The Ultimate Winner | Damodar Mauzo (2021/2022) |
| Description | The highest award for Indian literature |
How much prize money is given in Jnanpith Award?
It carries a prize money of Rs 11 lakh, a citation and a bronze statue of Vagdevi. When the Jnanpith Award was instituted in the year 1965, at that time the prize money was only one lakh rupees. In the year 2005, the prize money was increased from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 7 lakh, which has been increased to Rs 11 lakh at present.
57th Jnanpith Award 2021/2022:
Damodar Mauzzo is a Goan novelist, story writer, critic and essayist. He was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award (Konkani) in 1983 for his novel Carmelin.
56th Jnanpith Award 2020:
Akkitham, a prominent Malayalam poet, was selected for the 56th Jnanpith Award. The famous Indian poet Akkitham from Malayalam was selected for the 56th Jnanpith Award 2019 by the Jnanpith Selection Board in a meeting. The name Akkitham is taken with reverence in the Malayalam poetry world. He was born in 1926 and full name is Akkitham Achuthan Namboodiri and he is popularly known as Akkitham.
He has written 55 books out of which 45 are poetry collections. A Padma awardee, Akkitham has also been awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award, Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award (twice), Mathrubhumi Award, Vayalar Award and Kabir Samman.
List of Jnanpith Award Winners from the year 1965 till now:-
| Year | Jnanpith awardee litterateur |
| 2021/2022 | Damodar Mauzo (Konkani) |
| 2020 | Nilamani Phukan (Assamese) |
| 2019 | Akkitam Achuthan Namboodiri (Malayalam) |
| 2018 | Amitav Ghosh (English) |
| 2017 | Krishna Sobti (Hindi) |
| 2016 | Shankha Ghosh (Bengali) |
| 2015 | Raghuveer Chowdhary (Gujarati) |
| 2014 | Bhalchandra Nemade (Marathi) and Raghuveer Chowdhary (Gujarati) |
| 2013 | Kedarnath Singh (Hindi) |
| 2012 | Ravuri Bharadwaj (Telugu) |
| 2011 | Pratibha Rai (Odia) |
| 2010 | Chandrashekhar Kambar (Kannada) |
| 2009 | Amarkant and Shrilal Shukla (Hindi) |
| 2008 | Akhlaq Muhammad Khan Shahryar (Urdu) |
| 2007 | ONV Kurup (Malayalam) |
| 2006 | Rabindra Kelkar (Konkani) and Satyavrat Shastri (Sanskrit) |
| 2005 | Kunwar Narayan (Hindi) |
| 2004 | Rehman Rahi (Kashmiri) |
| 2003 | Vinda Karandikar (Marathi) |
| 2002 | Dandapani Jayakanthan (Tamil) |
| 2001 | Rajendra Keshavlal Shah (Gujarati) |
| 2000 | Indira Goswami (Assamese) |
| 1999 | Nirmal Verma (Hindi) and Gurdial Singh (Punjabi) |
| 1998 | Girish Karnad (Kannada) |
| 1997 | Ali Sardar Jafri (Urdu) |
| 1996 | Mahasweta Devi (Bengali) |
| 1995 | M.T. Vasudeva Nair (Malayalam) |
| 1994 | U.R. Ananthamurthy (Kannada) |
| 1993 | Sitakantha Mohapatra (Odia) |
| 1992 | Naresh Mehta (Hindi) |
| 1991 | Subhash Mukhopadhyay (Bengali) |
| 1990 | V.K. Gokak (Kannada) |
| 1989 | Kurtul N. Haider (Urdu) |
| 1988 | Dr. C Narayana Reddy (Telugu) |
| 1987 | Vishnu Vaman Shirwadkar Kusumagraj (Marathi) |
| 1986 | Sachchidananda Routray (Odia) |
| 1985 | Pannalal Patel (Gujarati) |
| 1984 | Takshi Sivasankara Pillai (Malayalam) |
| 1983 | Masti Venkatesh Iyengar (Kannada) |
| 1982 | Mahadevi Verma (Hindi) |
| 1981 | Amrita Pritam (Punjabi) |
| 1980 | S.K. Pottecut (Malayalam) |
| 1979 | Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya (Assamese) |
| 1978 | H. S. Agnya (Hindi) |
| 1977 | K. Sivarama Karanth (Kannada) |
| 1976 | Ashapurna Devi (Bengali) |
| 1975 | P.V. Akilanandam (Tamil) |
| 1974 | Vishnu Sakha Khandekar (Marathi) |
| 1973 | Dattatreya Ramachandra Bendre (Kannada) and Gopinath Mahanti (Odia) |
| 1972 | Ramdhari Singh Dinkar (Hindi) |
| 1971 | Vishnu Day (Bangla) |
| 1970 | Vishwanath Satyanarayana (Telugu) |
| 1969 | Firaq Gorakhpuri (Urdu) |
| 1968 | Sumitranandan Pant (Hindi) |
| 1967 | K.V. Puttapa (Kannada) and Umashankar Joshi (Gujarati) |
| 1966 | Tarashankar Bandhopadhyay (Bengali) |
| 1965 | G Shankar Kurup (Malayalam) |
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Jnanpith Award FAQs:
The first Jnanpith award was given to Malayalam writer Govinda Shankar Kurup in 1965. At that time the prize money was Rs 1 lakh. Till 1982, this award was given for a single work of the author. But since then it has been given for the overall contribution of the author to Indian literature.
In the year 1968, Sumitranandan Pant was awarded for his work Chidambara. Awarded Jnanpith Award for He was the first Hindi writer to receive this award. Pant has been considered the best among the shadowist poets of Hindi literature.
Renowned English writer and novelist Amitav Ghosh was awarded the Jnanpith Award for the year 2018. The selection committee had already announced the award of the 54th Jnanpith Award to Amitav Ghosh.
Eminent Telugu novelist, short story writer, poet and critic Ravuri Bharadwaj received the prestigious Jnanpith Award for the year 2012 for his contribution to Telugu literature.
Ashapurna Devi was a Bengali language poet and novelist from India, she was awarded the Jnanpith Award in 1976. She is the first woman to receive this award.