Assamese and
Telugu
Telugu may refer to:
* Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India
*Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India
* Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language
** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode
S ...
(three each),
Punjabi,
Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
* Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia
**Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils
**Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia
* Tamil language, nativ ...
and
Konkani (two each), English,
Kashmiri Kashmiri may refer to:
* People or things related to the Kashmir Valley or the broader region of Kashmir
* Kashmiris, an ethnic group native to the Kashmir Valley
* Kashmiri language, their language
People with the name
* Kashmiri Saikia Baruah ...
and
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
(one each). The award has been conferred upon fifty-eight writers including seven women authors. In 1976, Bengali novelist
Ashapoorna Devi
Ashapurna Devi (8 January 1909 – 12 July 1995), also Ashapoorna Devi or Ashapurna Debi, was a prominent Indian novelist and poet in Bengali. In 1976, she was awarded the Jnanpith Award and Padma Shri by the Government of India, D.Litt. by ...
became the first woman to win the award and was honoured for the 1965 novel ''
Prothom Protishruti
''Prothom Protishruti'' (; ), also spelled Pratham Pratishruti, is a 1964 Bengali novel by Ashapurna Devi. Considered to be Devi's magnum opus, it tells a story of Satyabati who was given away in marriage at the age of eight to maintain the soci ...
'' (''The First Promise''), the first in a trilogy. The most recent recipients of the award are Assamese poet
Nilmani Phookan
Nilmani Phookan (born 10 September 1933) is an Indian poet in Assamese language and an academic. His work, replete with symbolism, is inspired by French symbolism and is representative of the genre in Assamese poetry. His notable works includ ...
and Konkani writer
Damodar Mauzo
Damodar Mauzo (born 1 August 1944) is a Goan short story writer, novelist, critic and script writer in Konkani. He was awarded the 57th Jnanpith Award, India's highest literary honour, in 2021, Sahitya Akademi Award in 1983 for his novel ''Kar ...
, awarded for the years of 2021 and 2022 respectively.
Background
The
Bharatiya Jnanpith
Bharatiya Jnanpith a literary and research organization, based in New Delhi, India, was founded on February 18, 1944Encyclopaedia of Indian literature vol. 1, p. 298 1987, Sahitya Akademi, by Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain of the Sahu Jain family and ...
, a research and cultural institute founded in 1944 by industrialist
Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain
Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain was an Indian industrialist and philanthropist. He was the son-in-law of Ramkrishna Dalmia and former chairman of Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd., Bennett, Coleman. His family, Sahu Jains, owns the Times of India newspaper ...
of the
Sahu Jain family
The Sahu Jain family is an industrial family of India. They own Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. (commonly known as The Times Group), which owns ''The Times of India'', the most-circulated English newspaper in the world. The members of the extended ...
, conceived an idea in May 1961 to start a scheme "commanding national prestige and of international standard" to "select the best book out of the publications in Indian languages".
Later in November, Rama Jain, the Founder President of the Bharatiya Dnyanpith, invited a few literary experts to discuss various aspects of the scheme. Jain along with
Kaka Kalelkar
Dattatreya Balkrishna Kalelkar (1 December 1885 – 21 August 1981), popularly known as Kaka Kalelkar, was an Indian independence activist, social reformer, journalist and an eminent follower of the philosophy and methods of Mahatma Gandhi.
B ...
,
Harivansh Rai Bachchan
Harivansh Rai Bachchan (; 27 November 1907 19 December 2002) was an Indian poet and writer of the Nayi Kavita literary movement (romantic upsurge) of early 20th century Hindi literature. He was also a poet of the Hindi Kavi Sammelan. He is be ...
,
Ramdhari Singh Dinkar
Ramdhari Singh (23 September 1908 – 24 April 1974), known by his pen name Dinkar, was an Indian Hindi and Maithili language poet, essayist, freedom fighter, patriot and academic. He emerged as a poet of rebellion as a consequence of his ...
,
Jainendra Kumar
Jainendra Kumar (2 January 1905 – 24 December 1988) was a 20th century Indian writer who wrote in Hindi. He wrote novels include ''Sunita'' and ''Tyagapatra''. He was awarded one of India's highest civilian honours, the Padma Bhushan in 1971. ...
,
Jagdish Chandra Mathur
Jagdish Chandra Mathur (16 July 1917 –14 May 1978) was a Hindi playwright and writer.Chatak 2000 pg.''v'' He came into fame by his first play ''Konark''. He was born in a village near Khurja.Chatak 2000 pg.9 His other famous works includes ...
, Prabhakar Machwe, Akshaya Kumar Jain, and Lakshmi Chandra Jain presented the initial draft to the then
President of India
The president of India ( IAST: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. Droupadi Murmu ...
Rajendra Prasad
Rajendra Prasad (3 December 1884 – 28 February 1963) was an Indian politician, lawyer, Indian independence activist, journalist & scholar who served as the first president of Republic of India from 1950 to 1962. He joined the Indian Nationa ...
who had shown interest in the scheme's implementation. The idea was also discussed at the 1962 annual sessions of the
All India Gujarati Sahitya Parishad and the Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad.
On 2 April 1962, around 300 writers of various Indian languages were invited to Delhi for the two sessions conducted by
Dharamvir Bharati
Dharamvir Bharati (25 December 1926 – 4 September 1997) was a renowned Hindi poet, author, playwright and a social thinker of India. He was the chief editor of the popular Hindi weekly magazine '' Dharmayug'', from 1960 till 1987.The Illustr ...
in which the draft was finalised and later presented to Prasad. The first award selection committee meeting was scheduled on 16 March 1963 and Prasad was appointed as its president.
However, Prasad died on 28 February 1963 and thus the scheduled meeting was chaired by Kalelkar and
Sampurnanand
Sampurnanand (1 January 1891 – 10 January 1969) was a teacher and politician in Uttar Pradesh, India. He served as the second Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh from 1954 to 1960. If single tenures in the office of the Uttar Pradesh Chief M ...
acted as president of the committee.
The first Selection Board consisted of Kalelkar,
Niharranjan Ray
Niharranjan Ray (1903–1981) was an Indian Bengali historian, well known for his works on the history of art and Indian history.
Early life and education
He was born on 14 January 1903 at Kayetgram village of Mymensingh District in Bengal provi ...
,
Karan Singh
Karan Singh (born 9 March 1931) is an Indian politician and philosopher. He is the son of the last ruling Maharaja of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, Sir Hari Singh. He was the prince regent of Jammu and Kashmir until 1952. From 19 ...
,
R. R. Diwakar
Ranganath Ramachandra Diwakar (30 September 1894 – 15 January 1990) was an Indian writer and politician from Karnataka.
Biography
R. R. Diwakar was born on 30 September 1894. From the very beginning, he was interested in writing. He made m ...
,
V. Raghavan
Venkataraman Raghavan (1908–1979) was a Sanskrit scholar and musicologist. He was the recipient of numerous awards, including the Padma Bhushan and the Sahitya Akademi Award for Sanskrit, and authored over 120 books and 1200 articles.
Early ...
,
B. Gopal Reddy
Bezawada Gopala Reddy (5 August 1907 – 9 March 1997) was an Indian politician. He was Chief Minister of the erstwhile Andhra State (28 March 1955 – 1 November 1956) and Governor of Uttar Pradesh (1 May 1967 – 1 July 1972). He was popular ...
,
Harekrushna Mahatab
Harekrushna Mahatab (21 November 1899 – 2 January 1987) was the leader of the Indian National Congress, a notable figure in the Indian independence movement and the Chief Minister of Odisha from 1946 to 1950 and again from 1956 to 1961. He wa ...
, Rama Jain, and Lakshmi Chandra Jain and was headed by Sampurnanand. Works that were published between 1921 and 1951 were considered for the first award. The nine language committees that were formed were to submit to the board nominations along with translations of the work into Hindi or English. The final round had four authors;
Kazi Nazrul Islam
Kazi Nazrul Islam ( bn, কাজী নজরুল ইসলাম, ; 24 May 1899 – 29 August 1976) was a Bengali poet, Bengali literature, writer, Bangladeshi music, musician, and is the national poet of Bangladesh. Nazrul is regarded as one ...
(Bengali),
D. V. Gundappa
Devanahalli Venkataramanaiah Gundappa (17 March 1887 – 7 October 1975), popularly known as DVG, was an Indian writer, poet and philosopher in Kannada-language. He is one of the stalwarts of modern Kannada literature. His most notable work is th ...
(Kannada),
Viswanatha Satyanarayana
Viswanatha Satyanarayana (10 September 1885 – 18 October 1976) was a 20th-century Telugu writer. His works included poetry, novels, dramatic play, short stories and speeches, covering a wide range of subjects such as analysis of his ...
(Telugu), and
G. Sankara Kurup
G. Sankara Kurup, (3 June 1901 – 2 February 1978) also referred to as Mahakavi G (The Great Poet G), was an Indian poet, essayist and literary critic of Malayalam literature. Known as one of the greats of Malayalam poetry, he was the first r ...
(Malayalam). On 19 November 1966, Kurup was presented with the citation, statue of
Saraswati
Saraswati ( sa, सरस्वती, ) is the Hindu goddess of knowledge, music, art, speech, wisdom, and learning. She is one of the Tridevi, along with the goddesses Lakshmi and Parvati.
The earliest known mention of Saraswati as a go ...
, and a cheque for prize of at a ceremony held at
Vigyan Bhavan
Vigyan Bhawan ("science building") is a premier conference centre of the Government of India in New Delhi. Built in 1956, over the years it has been the venue of conferences of national and international stature, seminars and award ceremonies at ...
, Delhi. In his acceptance speech, Kurup appreciated the concept of the new award and thanked it for bringing "integration of the diverse people of this land on a spiritual plane".
Rules and selection process
The nominations for the award are received from various literary experts, teachers, critics, universities, and numerous literary and language associations. Every three years, an advisory committee is constituted for each of the languages.
The language of the most recent recipient's work is not eligible for consideration for the next two years.
Each committee consists of three literary critics and scholars of their respective languages. All the nominations are scrutinised by the committee and their recommendations are submitted to the Jnanpith Award Selection Board
The Selection Board consists of between seven and eleven members of "high repute and integrity". Each member is part of the committee for a term of three years which can also be extended further for two more terms.
The recommendations of all language advisory committees are evaluated by the board based on complete or partial translations of the selected writings of the proposed writers into Hindi or English. The recipient for a particular year is announced by the Selection Board, which has final authority in selection.
List of recipients
See also
*
Moortidevi Award
The Moortidevi Award is an Indian literary award annually presented by the Bharatiya Jnanpith, a literary and research organisation. The award is given only to Indian writers writing in Indian languages included in the Eighth Schedule to the Con ...
, another annual literary award conferred by the Bharatiya Jnanpith.
Notes
References
Bibliography
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Further reading
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External links
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{{featured list
Awards established in 1961
Events of The Times Group
Indian literary awards
*
1961 establishments in Delhi