Jnanpith Award
India’s Most Honorable Award for Literature
Introduction:
The Jnanpith Award or Gyanpith Award is the oldest and highest Indian literary award for outstanding contribution to literature. It is also known as the Jnanpith Award, given annually by the Bharatiya Jnanpith. It is given to a writer in any of the 22 languages recognized by the Indian Constitution. Since 2013, it has also been given for the best creative literary work in the English language. There is no posthumous award.
Table of contents:
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What is Jnanpith Award
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History of Gyanpith Puraskar
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Rules & Regulation
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Selection Process
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Significance of Jnanpith Award
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List of the Awardees by Year
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What is Jnanpith Award?
The Jnanpith Award is the most prestigious award in literature. It is given to writers of poetry and novels in Indian languages and English for their outstanding work. The award consists of a bronze Saraswati statue, a citation, and a cash prize. In 1981, the cash prize was increased to ₹1.5 lakh. In 2015, it was increased to ₹11 lakh. Since 1965, only works published in the previous twenty years, excluding the year of the award, are considered.
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History of Gyanpith Puraskar:
In 1944, Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain, the industrialist of the Sahu Jain family, founded a research and cultural institution called "Bharatiya Jnanpith." In May 1961, the institution thought of starting a project to select the best books from Indian language publications to achieve "international standards and national prestige." Then in November, Rama Jain, the founder president of Jnanpith, invited several literary experts to discuss various aspects of the project. These included Kaka Kalekar, Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, Jagdish Chandra Mathur, Harivansh Roy Bachchan, Prabhakar Machwe, Jainendra Kumar, Lakshmi Chandra Jain, and Akshay Kumar Jain. On 2 April 1962, the draft was finalized in two sessions in Delhi in the presence of 300 writers led by Dharmavir Bharti and presented to the then President of India, Rajendra Prasad. On 16 March 1963, he was declared a member of the first award selection committee but died on 28 February. Later, it was chaired by Kalelkar, and Sampurnananda became the president. The first selection board was headed by Sampurnananda, and the members were Kalelkar, R. R. Dibakar, Karan Singh, Niharanjan Roy, V. Raghavan, B. Gopal Reddy, Hare Krishna Mahatma, Lakshmi Chandra Jain, and Rama Jain. In this year, works published between 1921 and 1951 were considered for the first award. Four writers were nominated for the final round. These included Kazi Nazrul Islam, D. V. Gundappa, Vishwanath Satyanarayana, and G. Shankar Kurup. Kurup was selected as the winner. On 19 November 1966, he was presented with a certificate of appreciation, a Saraswati idol, and a prize cheque of Rs 1 lakh at a function held at Vigyan Bhavan in Delhi.
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Rules & Regulation:
From among the numerous outstanding works in different languages, the best work or writer receives the award. Though it is not an easy task, with years of experience and careful analysis, the most notable work is selected from these challenging works. The rules for this include —
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The selection process begins with proposals submitted by writers, critics, teachers, and discriminating readers belonging to universities, literary and language organizations, or similar institutions.
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An advisory committee is formed for each language that contains three eminent literary critics and scholars, which is reconstituted every three years.
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The advisory committees scrutinize the proposals received and ensure that no deserving writer of the respective language is out of consideration.
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The evaluation is based on the entire literary creativity of the writer and the context of contemporary writing.
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Since the 18th award, the entire contribution of a writer to Indian literature has been considered for this award.
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From the 49th Jnanpith Award, English has been listed along with other Indian languages, which is open only to Indian citizens.
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The recommendations of various language advisory committees are submitted to a selection board consisting of not less than seven and not more than eleven members of high repute and integrity.
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Each member of this board, made up of eminent scholars and writers of the country, has a term of three years. However, they can serve for two more terms.
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Selection Process:
This award, instituted by Bharatiya Jnanpith, is given annually for thoughtful and perceptive works in any form of literature that express, underline, and illuminate the human values inherent in the broad vision of Indian philosophy and cultural heritage. This award aims to encourage social and personal commitment to the higher values of life through literature in the larger sense. From that perspective, analytical, reflective, and perceptive writings of high quality are considered for the award. Its rules are as follows –
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Only writings by living authors, who are at least one year and not more than ten years old in the relevant award year, will be considered for the award.
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Proposals for the award can be submitted by publishers or any other person or institution. The proposal form can be downloaded from the Bharatiya Jnanpith website. The selection committee is free to consider any work apart from the proposal submitted to them. Proposal forms received by the due date will be considered in the selection process.
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If in any award year, the selection committee considers that any work does not meet the required standards, no award can be announced for that year.
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The selection committee is fully empowered to make decisions on all matters relating to the nomination, evaluation, and selection process.
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Books awarded in a given year will not be eligible for competition for the following year's award.
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Once an author has been selected for the award, no other work of theirs will be considered for any subsequent award.
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Significance of Jnanpith Award:
The Jnanpith Award, India's oldest and highest literary award, is a widely recognized honor intended to celebrate writers of exceptional talent in recognition of their outstanding contribution to Indian literature. Its features are –
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The Jnanpith Award is given annually to a writer by the Bharatiya Jnanpith for outstanding contribution to literature, which is a widely recognized honor in India.
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It serves as a testament to the richness, diversity, and literary excellence of Indian literature in various languages.
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The award recognizes writers who have made significant contributions to their respective literary traditions while also enriching the cultural heritage of the country.
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It is also known for actively promoting literary endeavors through nurturing literature and culture, awards, publications, fellowships, and research.
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The award is given only to living writers, not posthumously.
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The awardees are given a cash prize, a certificate, and a bronze replica of Goddess Bhagadevi (Saraswati), the goddess of knowledge.
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List of the Awardees by Year:
|
No. |
YEAR |
WRITER |
LANGUAGE |
|
1 |
1965 |
G. Sankara Kurup |
Malayalam |
|
2 |
1966 |
Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay |
Bengali |
|
3 |
1967 |
Umashankar Joshi |
Gujarati |
|
|
|
Kuppali Venkatappa Puttappa ‘Kuvempu’ |
Kannada |
|
4 |
1968 |
Sumitranandan Pant |
Hindi |
|
5 |
1969 |
Firaq Gorakhpuri, |
Urdu |
|
6 |
1970 |
Viswanatha Satyanarayana |
Telugu |
|
7 |
1971 |
Bishnu Dey |
Bengali |
|
8 |
1972 |
Ramdhari Singh ‘Dinkar’ |
Hindi |
|
9 |
1973 |
D. R. Bendre |
Kannada |
|
|
|
Gopinath Mohanty |
Odia |
|
10 |
1974 |
Vishnu Sakharam Khandekar |
Marathi |
|
11 |
1975 |
Akilan |
Tamil |
|
12 |
1976 |
Ashapoorna Devi |
Bengali |
|
13 |
1977 |
K. Shivaram Karanth |
Kannada |
|
14 |
1978 |
Sachchidananda Vatsyayan |
Hindi |
|
15 |
1979 |
Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya |
Assamese |
|
16 |
1980 |
S. K. Pottekkatt |
Malayalam |
|
17 |
1981 |
Amrita Pritam |
Punjabi |
|
18 |
1982 |
Mahadevi Varma |
Hindi |
|
19 |
1983 |
Masti Venkatesha Iyengar |
Kannada |
|
20 |
1984 |
Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai |
Malayalam |
|
21 |
1985 |
Pannalal Patel |
Gujarati |
|
22 |
1986 |
Sachidananda Routray |
Odia |
|
23 |
1987 |
Vishnu Vaman Shirwadkar ‘Kusumagraj’ |
Marathi |
|
24 |
1988 |
C. Narayana Reddy |
Telgu |
|
25 |
1989 |
Qurratulain Hyder |
Urdu |
|
26 |
1990 |
Vinayaka Krishna Gokak |
Kannada |
|
27 |
1991 |
Subhash Mukhopadhyay |
Bengali |
|
28 |
1992 |
Naresh Mehta |
Hindi |
|
29 |
1993 |
Sitakant Mahapatra |
Odia |
|
30 |
1994 |
U. R. Ananthamurthy |
Kannada |
|
31 |
1995 |
M. T. Vasudevan Nair |
Malayalam |
|
32 |
1996 |
Mahasweta Devi |
Bengali |
|
33 |
1997 |
Ali Sardar Jafri |
Urdu |
|
34 |
1998 |
Girish Karnad |
Kannada |
|
35 |
1999 |
Nirmal Verma |
Hindi |
|
|
|
Gurdial Singh |
Punjabi |
|
36 |
2000 |
Mamoni Raisom Goswami |
Assamese |
|
37 |
2001 |
Rajendra Shah |
Gujarati |
|
38 |
2002 |
Jayakanthan |
Tamil |
|
39 |
2003 |
Vinda Karandikar |
Marathi |
|
40 |
2004 |
Rehman Rahi |
Kashmiri |
|
41 |
2005 |
Kunwar Narayan |
Hindi |
|
42 |
2006 |
Ravindra Kelekar |
Konkani. |
|
|
|
Satya Vrat Shastri |
Sanskrit |
|
43 |
2007 |
O. N. V. Kurup |
Malayalam |
|
44 |
2008 |
Akhlaq Mohammed Khan ‘Shahryar’ |
Urdu |
|
45 |
2009 |
Amarkant |
Hindi |
|
|
|
Sri Lal Sukla |
Hindi |
|
46 |
2010 |
Chandrashekhara Kambara |
Kannada |
|
47 |
2011 |
Pratibha Ray |
Odia |
|
48 |
2012 |
Ravuri Bharadhwaja |
Telugu |
|
49 |
2013 |
Kedarnath Singh |
Hindi |
|
50 |
2014 |
Bhalchandra Nemade |
Marathi |
|
51 |
2015 |
Raghuveer Chaudhari |
Gujarati |
|
52 |
2016 |
Shankha Ghosh |
Bengali |
|
53 |
2017 |
Krishna Sobti |
Hindi |
|
54 |
2018 |
Amitav Ghosh |
English |
|
55 |
2019 |
Akkitham Achuthan Namboothiri |
Malayalam |
|
56 |
2021 |
Nilamani Phookan |
Assamese |
|
57 |
2022 |
Damodar Mauzo |
Konkani |
|
58 |
2023 |
Rambhadracharya |
Sanskrit |
|
|
|
Gulzar |
Urdu |
|
59 |
2024 |
Vinod Kumar Shukla |
Hindi |
Conclusion:
The Jnanpith Award should be given only to those deserving writers who have made outstanding contributions to the field of Indian literature. Their high-value work in the field of literature and culture should be published in a way that illuminates a reflective work. This award was introduced to encourage these writers or publishers to produce better works for our own culture. They will also be given awards, which will encourage them to be more productive.