Jnanpith and Sahitya Akademi: Awards and Winners
Notes on India's top literary honours for exams: the Jnanpith Award and the Sahitya Akademi, their founding, eligibility, prizes and landmark winners.
By GK24 Editorial Team· Published · 4 min read
Two names carry almost every literature question in a General Knowledge paper: the Jnanpith Award, the highest literary honour given in India, and the Sahitya Akademi, the country's national academy of letters, which gives a separate award in each of the languages it recognises. They are easy to mix up because both are annual, both honour Indian writers and both are often reported in the same breath. The difference is simple and worth fixing first: the Jnanpith is given by a private trust to one writer for a body of work, while the Sahitya Akademi Award is given by a government funded academy to one book in each language every year.
The Jnanpith Award
The Jnanpith Award was instituted in 1961 by Bharatiya Jnanpith, a literary and research trust set up in 1944 by Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain and Rama Jain. It is regarded as the highest literary award in India. Only an Indian citizen who writes in one of the languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution is eligible, and English was added to the list of eligible languages in 2013. A writer can receive the award only once.
The winner is given a bronze statue of Vagdevi, the goddess Saraswati, along with a citation and a cash prize. The first award, for the year 1965, went to the Malayalam poet G. Sankara Kurup for his collection Odakkuzhal, and he remains the answer to the commonest Jnanpith question of all. Until 1981 the award recognised a single outstanding work; from 1982 it has recognised a writer's lifetime contribution to Indian literature.
| Landmark | Winner | Language and year |
|---|---|---|
| First Jnanpith Award | G. Sankara Kurup | Malayalam, for 1965 |
| First Hindi winner | Sumitranandan Pant, for Chidambara | Hindi, for 1968 |
| First Urdu winner | Firaq Gorakhpuri | Urdu, for 1969 |
| First woman winner | Ashapurna Devi, for Pratham Pratishruti | Bengali, for 1976 |
| First Punjabi winner | Amrita Pritam | Punjabi, for 1981 |
| First Sanskrit winner | Satya Vrat Shastri | Sanskrit, for 2006 |
| First winner writing in English | Amitav Ghosh | English, for 2018 |
| 55th Jnanpith Award | Akkitham Achuthan Namboothiri | Malayalam, for 2019 |
Other frequently asked Jnanpith names include Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, honoured for the Hindi epic poem Urvashi, Mahadevi Verma for Yama, Sachchidananda Vatsyayan, who wrote under the pen name Agyeya, Mahashweta Devi in Bengali, Kuvempu and Shivaram Karanth in Kannada and Sitakant Mahapatra in Odia. Among the languages, Kannada has received the Jnanpith more often than any other. Bharatiya Jnanpith also gives the Moortidevi Award, instituted in 1983, for a creative work that carries the spirit of Indian philosophy and culture.
The Sahitya Akademi
The Sahitya Akademi is India's National Academy of Letters. It was set up by the Government of India on 12 March 1954 and works today as an autonomous body under the Ministry of Culture, with its headquarters at Rabindra Bhavan in New Delhi. Jawaharlal Nehru was its first President. Its purpose is to promote literature in the Indian languages, and it recognises twenty-four languages: the twenty-two listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution together with English and Rajasthani.
The Sahitya Akademi Award, instituted in the year the academy was founded and first given in 1955, goes each year to the most outstanding book of literary merit published in each of those languages, so about two dozen awards are announced together. The winner receives an engraved copper plaque, a shawl and a cash prize. Amrita Pritam, honoured in 1956 for her Punjabi collection Sunehe, was the first woman to win a Sahitya Akademi Award, and she went on to win the Jnanpith as well.
The Akademi's other honours
The highest honour the Akademi itself confers is not the award but the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship, reserved for writers of exceptional standing and limited to twenty-one living writers at a time, which is why Fellows are described as the immortals of Indian literature. Around it the Akademi has built a set of smaller honours that appear in objective papers.
- Bhasha Samman, instituted in 1996, for work in languages the Akademi does not formally recognise, and for classical and medieval literature.
- Translation Prize, instituted in 1989, for outstanding translations into and from the Indian languages.
- Bal Sahitya Puraskar, instituted in 2010, for writing for children.
- Yuva Puraskar, instituted in 2011, for writers aged thirty-five or below.
- Premchand Fellowship, instituted in 2005, offered to writers and scholars from the countries of the SAARC region.
- Ananda Coomaraswamy Fellowship, for visiting scholars from Asian countries.
Telling the two apart in the exam
A question that names a trust, a bronze Saraswati or a lifetime contribution is about the Jnanpith. A question that names a plaque and a shawl, a single book of the year, twenty-four languages or a Fellowship is about the Sahitya Akademi. Neither is a government civilian honour, so neither belongs in the Padma series, and neither is the Bharat Ratna; a writer may of course hold more than one. Note also that the Jnanpith year is the year of the award and not always the year it is announced, which is why a paper may call the same prize the 55th Jnanpith and the award for 2019 in the same breath.
Exam Point of View
Papers ask four kinds of question here. First, the founding facts: 1961 for the Jnanpith and 1954 for the Sahitya Akademi, the trust behind one and the government behind the other. Second, the firsts: the first Jnanpith winner, the first woman, the first in Hindi, the first in English. Third, the physical prize: a bronze Vagdevi for the Jnanpith against a copper plaque and a shawl for the Akademi. Fourth, the numbers: twenty-four languages recognised by the Akademi and twenty-one Fellows at a time. The traps are to call the Jnanpith a government award, to treat the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship as the same thing as the Sahitya Akademi Award, and to answer a question about a numbered Jnanpith with the calendar year of its announcement rather than the year of the award.
Important Facts
| Jnanpith instituted | 1961, by Bharatiya Jnanpith |
|---|---|
| Bharatiya Jnanpith founded | 1944, by Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain and Rama Jain |
| First Jnanpith winner | G. Sankara Kurup, Malayalam, for 1965 |
| Jnanpith prize | Bronze statue of Vagdevi, a citation and a cash prize |
| First woman Jnanpith winner | Ashapurna Devi, Bengali, for 1976 |
| First Hindi Jnanpith winner | Sumitranandan Pant, for Chidambara, 1968 |
| First Jnanpith in English | Amitav Ghosh, for 2018 |
| 55th Jnanpith Award | Akkitham Achuthan Namboothiri, Malayalam, for 2019 |
| Sahitya Akademi established | 12 March 1954, by the Government of India |
| First President of the Akademi | Jawaharlal Nehru |
| Akademi headquarters | Rabindra Bhavan, New Delhi |
| Languages recognised | Twenty-four: the Eighth Schedule twenty-two plus English and Rajasthani |
| Sahitya Akademi Award prize | Engraved copper plaque, a shawl and a cash prize |
| Sahitya Akademi Fellowship | The Akademi's highest honour, limited to twenty-one living writers |
| First woman Akademi awardee | Amrita Pritam, Punjabi, 1956, for Sunehe |
| Bhasha Samman instituted | 1996, for unrecognised languages and older literature |
Practice MCQs on this topic
Who among the following was awarded the 55th Jnanpith Award?
- A.Amitav Ghosh
- B.Raghuveer Chaudhari
- C.Chandrashekhara Kambara
- D.Akkitham Achuthan Namboothiri
Show answer
The Malayalam poet, known simply as Akkitham, received the 55th Jnanpith Award, given for the year 2019. He was the sixth Malayalam writer to be honoured, the language whose G. Sankara Kurup had won the very first Jnanpith for 1965.
Read the full explanation →In which year was the Jnanpith Award instituted?
- A.1944
- B.1954
- C.1961
- D.1965
Show answer
The Jnanpith Award was instituted in 1961 by Bharatiya Jnanpith, and it is regarded as the highest literary honour given in India.
Read the full explanation →Who was the first recipient of the Jnanpith Award?
- A.G. Sankara Kurup
- B.Sumitranandan Pant
- C.Tarashankar Bandopadhyay
- D.Kuvempu
Show answer
The Malayalam poet received the first Jnanpith Award, for the year 1965, for his collection of poems Odakkuzhal, meaning the reed flute.
Read the full explanation →Who was the first woman writer to receive the Jnanpith Award?
- A.Mahadevi Verma
- B.Ashapurna Devi
- C.Amrita Pritam
- D.Mahashweta Devi
Show answer
The Bengali novelist received the Jnanpith for the year 1976 for Pratham Pratishruti, the first book of a trilogy about three generations of women in a Bengali household, and she was the first woman to be honoured with the award.
Read the full explanation →A recipient of the Jnanpith Award is presented with a bronze statue of which figure?
- A.Vagdevi, the goddess Saraswati
- B.Nataraja
- C.Goddess Lakshmi
- D.Gautama Buddha
Show answer
Along with a citation and a cash prize, every Jnanpith laureate receives a bronze replica of Vagdevi, Saraswati as the goddess of speech and learning, which is a fitting emblem for a literary honour and a detail asked directly in objective papers.
Read the full explanation →Who was the first writer in the English language to be awarded the Jnanpith?
- A.Arundhati Roy
- B.R. K. Narayan
- C.Amitav Ghosh
- D.Vikram Seth
Show answer
English was not an eligible language for the Jnanpith until 2013, when it was added to the languages of the Eighth Schedule for the purpose of this award.
Read the full explanation →The Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, was established in which year?
- A.1947
- B.1954
- C.1961
- D.1972
Show answer
The Government of India set up the Sahitya Akademi on 12 March 1954 as the national academy for literature, and it works today as an autonomous body under the Ministry of Culture with its headquarters at Rabindra Bhavan in New Delhi.
Read the full explanation →Who was the first President of the Sahitya Akademi?
- A.Dr. Rajendra Prasad
- B.Dr. S. Radhakrishnan
- C.Jawaharlal Nehru
- D.Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
Show answer
The Prime Minister was the first President of the Sahitya Akademi, elected when the academy was set up in 1954, and he held the office until his death in 1964.
Read the full explanation →In how many languages does the Sahitya Akademi give its annual awards?
- A.18
- B.22
- C.24
- D.28
Show answer
The Sahitya Akademi recognises twenty-four languages and gives one award in each of them every year for the most outstanding book of literary merit, so roughly two dozen names are announced together.
Read the full explanation →The Sahitya Akademi Fellowship, the highest honour conferred by the Akademi, is limited to how many living writers at a time?
- A.11
- B.21
- C.24
- D.31
Show answer
The Fellowship, not the annual award, is the highest honour the Sahitya Akademi confers, and its rules restrict it to twenty-one living writers at any one time.
Read the full explanation →Who was the first woman to receive the Sahitya Akademi Award?
- A.Amrita Pritam
- B.Mahadevi Verma
- C.Ashapurna Devi
- D.Kamala Das
Show answer
She received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1956 for her Punjabi poetry collection Sunehe, meaning messages, and was the first woman to be honoured by the Akademi.
Read the full explanation →The Sahitya Akademi has its headquarters in which of the following buildings?
- A.Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi
- B.Rabindra Bhavan, New Delhi
- C.Shastri Bhavan, New Delhi
- D.Nirman Bhavan, New Delhi
Show answer
The building on Feroze Shah Road, named after Rabindranath Tagore, houses all three of India's national academies, the Sahitya Akademi for letters, the Lalit Kala Akademi for the fine arts and the Sangeet Natak Akademi for the performing arts.
Read the full explanation →Frequently Asked Questions
Which is the highest literary award in India?
The Jnanpith Award, instituted in 1961 and given by Bharatiya Jnanpith, a private literary trust. It honours an Indian citizen writing in one of the languages of the Eighth Schedule, English having been added in 2013, and a writer may receive it only once. The winner gets a bronze statue of Vagdevi with a citation and a cash prize.
Who received the first Jnanpith Award?
G. Sankara Kurup, the Malayalam poet, for the year 1965, honoured for his collection Odakkuzhal. Until 1981 the award recognised one outstanding work in this way; from 1982 onwards it has been given for a writer's lifetime contribution to Indian literature instead.
What is the difference between the Jnanpith Award and the Sahitya Akademi Award?
The Jnanpith is given by a private trust to one writer a year for a body of work, and carries a bronze Saraswati. The Sahitya Akademi Award is given by a government funded national academy to the best book of the year in each of twenty-four languages, so about two dozen are announced together, and it carries a copper plaque and a shawl.
When was the Sahitya Akademi established and where is it located?
The Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, was set up by the Government of India on 12 March 1954, with Jawaharlal Nehru as its first President. It functions as an autonomous body under the Ministry of Culture and has its headquarters at Rabindra Bhavan in New Delhi.
How many languages does the Sahitya Akademi recognise?
Twenty-four. These are the twenty-two languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution together with English and Rajasthani. The Akademi gives one award in each of them every year, and its Bhasha Samman, instituted in 1996, honours work in languages outside this list.
What is the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship?
It is the highest honour the Sahitya Akademi confers, higher than its annual award, and it is reserved for writers of exceptional standing. Only twenty-one living writers may hold it at any one time, which is why Fellows are often described as the immortals of Indian literature.
Sources
- About the Akademi, Awards and Fellowships — Sahitya Akademi, Ministry of Culture
- Jnanpith Award: Institution, Eligibility and Awardees — Bharatiya Jnanpith
