List of Jnanpith Award Winners (1965-2024), Prize Money

The Jnanpith Award is the highest Indian literary award presented annually by the Bharatiya Jnanpith to an author. The Jnanpith Award Winners list includes outstandingIndian literary figures who have been honored for their outstanding contributions to literature.

In this article we have covered the list of Jnanpith Award Winners from 1965 to 2024 for their contribution in Indian Literature, History of this Award How Jananpith Award is Given and many more.

Let’s get closer look on the winners of this award.

List of Jnanpith Award Winners (1965-2024)

The following is the list of Jananpith Award Winners from 1965 to 2024:

Serial No.	Recipient Name	Language	Year
1	G. Sankara Kurup	Malayalam	1965
2	Tarashankar Bandyopadhyay	Bengali	1966
3	Kuppali Venkatappagowda Puttappa	Kannada	1967
4	Umashankar Joshi	Gujarati	1967
5	Sumitranandan Pant	Hindi	1968
6	Firaq Gorakhpuri	Urdu	1969
7	Viswanatha Satyanarayana	Telugu	1970
8	Bishnu Dey	Bengali	1971
9	Ramdhari Singh Dinkar	Hindi	1972
10	Dattatreya Ramachandra Bendre	Kannada	1973
11	Gopinath Mohanty	Oriya	1973
12	Vishnu Sakharam Khandekar	Marathi	1974
13	P. V. Akilan	Tamil	1975
14	Ashapurna Devi	Bengali	1976
15	K. Shivaram Karanth	Kannada	1977
16	Sachchidananda Hirananda Vatsyayan ‘Agyeya’	Hindi	1978
17	Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya	Assamese	1979
18	S. K. Pottekkatt	Malayalam	1980
19	Amrita Pritam	Punjabi	1981
20	Mahadevi Varma	Hindi	1982
21	Masti Venkatesha Iyengar	Kannada	1983
22	Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai	Malayalam	1984
23	Pannalal Patel	Gujarati	1985
24	Sachidananda Routray	Oriya	1986
25	Vishnu Vaman Shirwadkar	Marathi	1987
26	Dr C. Narayana Reddy	Telugu	1988
27	Qurratulain Hyder	Urdu	1989
28	Vinayaka Krishna Gokak	Kannada	1990
29	Subhash Mukhopadhyay	Bengali	1991
30	Naresh Mehta	Hindi	1992
31	Sitakant Mahapatra	Oriya	1993
32	U. R. Ananthamurthy	Kannada	1994
33	Dr. M. T. Vasudevan Nair	Malayalam	1995
34	Mahasweta Devi	Bengali	1996
35	Ali Sardar Jafri	Urdu	1997
36	Girish Karnad	Kannada	1998
37	Gurdial Singh	Punjabi	1999
38	Nirmal Verma	Hindi	1999
39	Indira Goswami	Assamese	2000
40	Rajendra Keshavlal Shah	Gujarati	2001
41	D. Jayakanthan	Tamil	2002
42	Vinda Karandikar	Marathi	2003
43	Rehman Rahi	Kashmiri	2004
44	Kunwar Narayan	Hindi	2005
45	Ravindra Kelekar	Konkani	2006
46	Satya Vrat Shastri	Sanskrit	2006
47	Dr. O. N. V. Kurup	Malayalam	2007
48	Akhlaq Mohammed Khan	Urdu	2008
49	Amar Kant	Hindi	2009
50	Shrilal Shukla	Hindi	2009
51	Chandrashekhara Kambara	Kannada	2010
52	Pratibha Ray	Oriya	2011
53	Ravuri Bharadwaja	Telugu	2012
54	Kedarnath Singh	Hindi	2013
55	Bhalchandra Nemade	Marathi	2014
56	Dr. Raghuvir Chaudhari	Gujarati	2015
57	Shankha Ghosh	Bengali	2016
58	Krishna Sobti	Hindi	2017
59	Amitav Ghosh	English	2018
60	Akkitham Achuthan Namboothiri	Malayalam	2019
61	Nilamani Phookan	Assamese	2021
62	Damodar Mauzo	Konkani	2022

Jnanpith Award Overview

The following is the brief overview of Jnanpith Award:

• This award has achieved recognition as the country’s highest literary award. 
  
• English is considered along with other Indian languages ​​for this award. Amitav Ghosh, awarded in 2018 became the first person to get this for the English language.
  
• The award is open to Indian citizens only and is presented annually. 
  
• The prize is a cash prize of Rs. 11 lakhs, a mention, and a bronze replica of Vagdevi (Saraswati), the goddess of learning.
  
• The sponsorship is provided by Bharatiya Jnanpith, a cultural organization.

History of Jnanpith Award

The following is the history of the Jnanpith Award, How it started, It’s objective, first Awardee etc.

1. Beginning(1961): The Jnanpith Award, India’s highest literary honor, was instituted in 1961 by the Bharatiya Jnanpith, a trust established by the Sahu Jain family, the publishers of The Times of India newspaper.
2. Objective: The award aims to recognize and felicitate Indian authors who have made significant contributions to literature in any of the 22 officially recognized languages of India.
3. First Awardee: The inaugural Jnanpith Award was conferred upon Malayalam writer G. Sankara Kurup in 1965 for his contributions to Indian literature.
4. Language Inclusivity: The award is not limited to any specific language or region, promoting linguistic diversity by acknowledging literary excellence in languages beyond Hindi and English.
5. Criteria for Selection: The recipient is chosen based on their overall literary work, including novels, poetry, plays, essays, and literary criticism, reflecting a lifelong dedication to the craft.
6. Cash Prize and Recognition: Along with a cash prize, the Jnanpith Award brings national recognition and prestige to the recipient, solidifying their place in the annals of Indian literature.
7. Significant Milestones: Over the years, the award has been presented to illustrious authors across different linguistic and cultural backgrounds, contributing to the enrichment of India’s literary heritage.
8. Notable Awardees: The list of Jnanpith laureates includes iconic figures such as Rabindranath Tagore, Mulk Raj Anand, R.K. Narayan, Vikram Seth, and Mahasweta Devi, among others.
9. Ceremony and Presentation: The award ceremony is a grand event attended by eminent personalities from the literary and cultural spheres, with the President of India usually presenting the award.
10. Continued Legacy: The Jnanpith Award continues to be a coveted recognition in the Indian literary world, honoring writers who have left an indelible mark on the nation’s literary landscape.

How Jnanpith Award Given

The following is the selection process for the Jananpith Award:

1. Proposal Submission:
   • For the Jnanpith Award Proposals are initially submitted by teachers, literateurs, associations, organizations, universities, etc.
2. Language Advisory Committee:
   • Each language has a Language Advisory Committee comprising three eminent literary scholars and critics.
   • The committee evaluates suggested works/writers based on established criteria or considers other writers.
3. Literary Evaluation:
   • The committee assesses the literary creativity of an author, taking into account their body of work.
4. Recommendations:
   • Recommendations from various Language Advisory Committees are compiled.
5. Selection Board:
   • The Selection Board reviews and comparatively evaluates the recommendations.
6. Awardee Selection:
   • Based on the evaluation, the Selection Board chooses the Jnanpith Awardee for the year.

FAQs on Jnanpith Award Winners

1. Who is the 57th Jnanpith Award winners?

Damodar Mauzo, a Goan short story writer, novelist, critic, and scriptwriter in Konkani, has been awarded the 57th Jnanpith Award.

2. Who is the recent Jnanpith Award winner?

Recently, Jnanpith Awar was given to Damodar mauzo in 2021, Nilmani Pookhani Jr. in 2020.

3. Who won the first Jnanpith Award?

The first Jnanpith Award was won by G. Sankara Kurup. He was a Malayalam poet and lyricist, and he received the Jnanpith Award in 1965 for his outstanding contributions to Indian literature.

4. What is the prize money for Jnanpith Award Winner?

The Jnanpith Award Winner get a cash prize of RS. 11 Lakh and a bronze replica of Goddess Saraswati, The Hindu goddess of learning and a lot of respect.