58th Jnanpith Award:
The President of India conferred the 58th Jnanpith Award on Sanskrit scholar Jagadguru Rambhadracharya Ji at a function held at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi recently.
- Jnanpith Award is the highest literary honour of India, given to writers who have excelled in literature in different Indian languages.
- It is given every year to an author for his/her outstanding contribution towards Indian literature through creative writing in any of the Indian languages mentioned in Schedule VIII of the Indian Constitution and English.
- It was instituted in 1961.
- The prize carries a cash award, a citation, and a bronze replica of Vagdevi (Saraswati), the goddess of learning.
- It is sponsored by the cultural organization Bharatiya Jnanpith.
- Bharatiya Jnanpith is one of the premier literary organisations of India, which is nurturing literature and culture through its literary endeavors, which include awards, publication, fellowship, and research, for the last several decades.
- The organisation was established in 1944.
- The first recipient of the award was Malayalam poet G. Sankara Kurup, who received the award in 1965 for his collection of poems Odakkuzhal.
