'Jnanpith Award'

The most prestigious literary award of the country

'Jnanpith Award' (of Rs. 5 lakhs), given for the best creative literary writing by any Indian citizen in any of the languages included in the VIII Schedule of the Indian Constitution. The Award is the brain-child of late Smt. Rama Jain, the first President of and the moving spirit behind the Bharatiya Jnanpith since its inception. 

 PM Dr. Manmohan Singh presenting 40th Jnanpith award for the year 2004 to kashmiri poet Rahman Rahi in an award ceremony in New Delhi on Thursday, November 6, 2008.

Since 1965, thirty-nine eminent writers have received the award in thirty-six years. On three occasions, the award was shared by two authors. The award has gone so far seven times to Kannada, six times to Hindi, five times to Bangla, four times to Malayalam, thrice each to Oriya and Urdu, twice each to Assamese, Gujarati, Marathi, Telugu and Punjabi, and once to Tamil.