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Jnanpith Award recognition, features, winning criteria for Indian writers
What is Jnanpith Award?
The Jnanpith Award is an Indian literary award presented annually by the Bharatiya Jnanpith to an author for their outstanding contribution towards literature, the highest award for the country was instituted in 1961.
The award is bestowed only on Indian writers writing in any of the 22 Indian languages included in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India and English.
Prior to 1982, the award was only conferred for a single work by a writer, however, after 1982 the award recognized writers’ lifetime contribution to Indian literature.
The first recipient of the award was the Malayalam writer G. Sankara Kurup, who received it in 1965 for his collection of poems, Odakkuzhal. Still, the award has been conferred to fifty-seven writers including seven women authors.
Bengali writer, Ashapoorna Devi was the first woman novelist to win the award in 1976 for her 1965 novel Pratham Pratisruti. In 2016 as well, the award went to a woman novelist, Bengali poet, and critic Shankha Ghosh.
