Jnanpith Award is the highest literary honour presented by the Government of India. The award carries a cheque for Rs. 500,000, a citation plaque and a bronze replica of Vagdevi. 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.

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 - Maasti Venkatesh Ayengar - Chikkaveera Rajendra - 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 - Bharatha Sindhu Rashmi - 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
• 2002 - D. Jayakanthan - Tamil