But its crowning glory continues to be the annual
'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. It has become the most prestigious
literary award of the country.
Since 1965, thirty-nine eminent writers have received
the award in thirty-six years. O
n 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. To veiw the detail of awardees please click here
MOORTIDEVI
AWARD
Bharatiya Jnanpith has instituted
another award, 'Moortidevi Award', named after
the revered mother of late Sahu Shanti Prasad
Jain. This award is presented every year for a
contemplative or creative work which expresses,
underlines and illumines human values rooted in
the broad vision of Indian philosophy and cultural
heritage. The objective of the Award is to foster
social and individual commitment to higher values
of life through the medium of literature in its
larger sense. In that perspective, analytical,
cultural, spiritual, creative writings of a high
order are considered for the award. But now these
do not include creative literary works. The Mooritdevi
Award has so far been conferred on 12 learned
litterateurs, 8 Hindi and one each of Oriya, Marathi,
Kannada and Gujarati.
Bharatiya Jnanpith is managed by a Trust, under
the presidentship of the well-known patron of
various social and cultural activities, Smt. Indu
Jain. To view the detail of awardees please click here
BOARD OF TRUSTEES, BHARATIYA JNANPITH
