India Highest Litreature Awards

India has been fortunate in its rich treasure trove of literary masterpieces over the course of time. The works of literature in India hail from diverse backgrounds, thus contributing to the country’s great literary caliber. To commemorate these invaluable skills, India has a slew of prestigious literary awards. Let’s take a look at some of the most prestigious literary awards in India:

 

Jnanpith Award

 

This literary award has achieved the recognition as the oldest and the most prestigious award presented every year by the Bharatiya Jnanpith to an author for their outstanding contribution towards literature. Initiated in 1961, this award is only given to writers of Indian origin writing in the Indian languages included in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India, as well as in English with no posthumous conferral.

 

Here are a few interesting facts about this honourable award:

 

• The first recipient of the Jnanpith Award was a Malayalam writer named G. Sankara Kurup. The author won the award in 1965 for his book ‘Odakkuzhal’ ( The Bamboo Flute).
• The first woman author to win this award was a Bengali writer named Ashapoorna Devi. She bagged the award in 1976.
• The organization that presents the Jnanpith Award was founded in 1944 by philanthropist and industrialist Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain.
• The Jnanpith Award is sponsored by Bharatiya Jnanpith, a cultural organization.
• The award winner is bestowed a cash price of Rs. 11 lakh as well as a bronze replica of the Goddess Saraswati, who is the Hindu Goddess of learning.

 

Sahitya Akademi Fellowship Honour

 

The Sahitya Akademi Fellowship  is an esteemed literary honour given by the Sahitya Akademi, which is India’s National Academy of Letters. This award is the highest honour bestowed by the Akademi on a living author. The writers are elected by the Akademi who are deemed to be of acknowledged merit with the members of this fellowship often described as the ‘immortals of Indian literature’.

 

The inclusion and appointment of fellows into the Sahitya Akademi was based on models of academies of letters, particularly on the Académie française’s method of electing authors as members. The initial Constitution of the Academy was a limited membership of 21 fellows who were acknowledged to be literary persons of outstanding merit. The first General Committee proposed an expansion of the Fellowship by including 50 associate fellows and five Honorary members as a provision to allow the Akademi to honour foreign authors too. Despite this provision, the Akademi did not make any appointments to the position of Associate Fellows. In 1999, the provision for their appointment was annulled.

Jawaharlal Nehru was the first president of the Sahitya Akademi and soon after his demise, Mulk Raj Anand proposed that Nehru be conferred as the Fellow of the Akademi posthumously. This proposal was rejected as the Akademi was of the view that Fellowships can only be bestowed upon living writers. As a practice, the General Council has refrained from electing it’s own members for the Fellowship, although members of the General Council have become Fellows after the completion of their term with the Council. A noteworthy exception to this practice was the conferral of D. Jayakanthan as a Fellow while he was serving his tenure with the Council.

Here are some interesting facts about the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship Honour:

• Sarepalli Radhakrishnan was the first writer to be elected for the Fellowship.
• Mulk Raj Anand was the first Indian English writer to be inducted into the Fellowship in 1989.
• K. Narayan was the second Indian English writer to be elected in 1994.

 

Vyas Samman

An Indian literary award, the Vyas Samman is awarded every year by the K.K Birla foundation. First initiated in 1991, the award includes a cash payout of Rs. 4,00,000. To be eligible for the award, the literary work has to be in the Hindi language and it should be published in the past 10 years.

 

Saraswati Samman

 

Named after the Indian Goddess of Knowledge, the Saraswati Samman is an annual award bestowed on literary works of poetry or prose in any of the 22 languages of India that is listed in the Schedule Vlll of the Constitution of India.

The award was first initiated in 1991 by the K.K Birla Foundation. Candidates are chosen from their literary works published in the previous 10 years by a panel of previous winners and scholars. The Saraswati Samman award consists of a plaque, a citation, and a price money of Rs.15,00,000. The inaugural award was conferred to Harivanshrai ‘Bachchan’ for his four volume autobiography, Kya Bhooloon Kya Yaad Karoon, Needa Ka Nirman Phir, Basere Se Door, and Dashdwar se Sopan Tak.

 

Mahapandit Rahul Sanskrityan Award

 

Also called the Hindi Sevi Samman and the Rahul Sankrityan National Award, this award is a prestigious Indian literary honour which the Kendriya Hindi Sansthan or the Central Hindi Organization and the Ministry of Human Resource Development bestow annually on authors of exceptional works in Hindi Travel Literature. The honorary award was bestowed on a number of Hindi experts for playing a pivotal role in promoting the Hindi language.

The award was first established in 1989 and named after the Father of Hindi Travel Literature Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityan. The award was first conferred to Dr. Kamala Sankrityan in 1993 and Dr. Shyam Singh Rashi.

 

 The Hindu Literary Award

 

Also called the Hindu Best Fiction Award, the Hindu Literary Award was first established in 2010 and sponsored by the Hindu Literary Review which is a part of the The Hindu newspaper. This literary award recognizes Indian writings in both the English language and English translation. In 2918, a non-fiction category was included as well.

 

Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar

 

As an initiative to encourage and promote young authors in all of India’s24 languages, this literary award was instituted by the Sahitya Akademi.

The Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar award is conferred every year to the best original literary creation by young authors of age 35 and below in all of the 24 recognized languages of India.

First initiated in 2011, the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar is the only Akademi award open for nominations by publishers and self-nominations by authors. The award includes a citation, a shawl, a plaque and a cheque for a cash price of Rs. 50,000.