Who was the first woman to receive the Sahitya Akademi Award?
- A.Amrita Pritam
- B.Mahadevi Verma
- C.Ashapurna Devi
- D.Kamala Das
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is A, Amrita Pritam. 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. She later became the first Punjabi writer to win the Jnanpith, for the year 1981, so both her firsts are worth remembering as a pair.
Option B, Mahadevi Verma, the Hindi poet, won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1942, which is impossible since the Akademi did not exist then; she was honoured by it much later and won the Jnanpith for 1982. Option C, Ashapurna Devi, was the first woman to win the Jnanpith, for 1976, and that neighbouring first is the trap in this question. Option D, Kamala Das, who also wrote as Madhavikutty, won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1985 for her Malayalam short stories. Only Amrita Pritam holds the 1956 first.
Read the full article: Jnanpith and Sahitya Akademi: Awards and Winners
Practice Questions
View allWho 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 →