The Jnanpith Award is the highest literary honour conferred in the Republic of India. It is presented by the Jnanpith Trust, which is largely owned by the Jain family, publishers of The Times of India.

     The award carries a check for Rs. 700,000, a citation plaque and a bronze replica of Vagdevi, the Hindu goddess of knowledge, music, and the arts. The award was instituted in 1961. 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 has been given for a lifetime contribution to Indian literature. Seven awards each have been awarded in Kannada and Hindi and followed by five in Bengali, four in Malayalam and three in Gujarati, Oriya, Marathi and Urdu.

     The award for the years 2005 and 2006 were announced on November 22, 2008, and were awarded to the Hindi writer Kunwar Narayan for 2005 and jointly to Konkani writer Ravindra Kelekar and Sanskrit scholar Satya Vrat Shastri for 2006.

The recipients of Jnanpith Award

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 Ramachandra Bendre - Nakutanti (Four Strings) - 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 - Mookajjiya 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. Pottakkat - Oru Desattinte Katha (Story of a land) - Malayalam
1981 - Amrita Pritam - Kagaj te Canvas - Punjabi
1982 - Mahadevi Varma - Yama-Hindi
1983 - Maasti Venkatesh Ayengar - Chikkaveera Rajendra (Life and struggle of Kodava King Chikkaveera Rajendra)- Kannada
1984 - Thakazhi Sivasankara 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
2003 - Vinda Karandikar - Marathi
2004 - Rahman Rahi - Kashmiri
2005 - Kunwar Narayan - Hindi
2006 - Ravindra Kelekar - Konkani
2006 - Satya Vrat Shastri - Sanskrit