Jnanpith Award (pronounced Gyanpeeth Award) is the highest literary honour presented by the Government of India. The award was instituted in 1961 and the first award was given to the 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. The award carries a cheque for Rs. 250,000, a citation and a bronze replica of Vagdevi.

Before 1982, the awards were given for a single work by a writer. From 1982, the award is being given for overall contribution to Indian literature. So far Kannada writers have won 7 awards which is the highest for any language. Hindi writers have won 6 awards.

List of Awardees

(Year - Name - Works - Language)

• 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 - Masti Venkatesh Ayengar - 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 - 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