Jnanpith Award is an award given for excellence in the field of literature. It is an Indian literary award presented yearly by the Bharatiya Jnanpith to an author for their excellent contribution towards literature. Along with the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship, it is one of the prestigious literary awards in the country. The award was instituted in 1961 and any Indian who writes in any of the official languages of India is entitled for the award.

The Bharatiya Jnanpith, a trust established by Sahu Jain family, the publishers of the leading newspaper The Times of India present this award. The award consists of a cheque of five lakhs, a citation plaque and a bronze icon of Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of knowledge, music and arts.

Background of Jnanpith Award
The name Jnanpith is taken from the Sanskrit term `jnanapitha` which means knowledge seat. Before 1982, the awards were presented for a single work by a writer but after 1982 the award has also been given for lifetime contribution to Indian literature. The "Bharatiya Jnanpith", a research and educational institute founded in 1944 by industrialist Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain of the Sahu Jain family, conceived a proposal in May 1961 to start a scheme. The Founder President of the Bharatiya Jnanpith requested a few literary experts to discuss different aspects of the system.

The idea was also discussed at the 1962 annual sessions of the All India Gujarati Sahitya Parishad and the Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad. The first Selection Board of Jnanpith Award consisted of Kalelkar, Niharranjan Ray, Karan Singh, R. R. Diwakar, V. Raghavan, B. Gopal Reddy, Harekrishna Mahatab, Rama Jain, and Lakshmi Chandra Jain and was headed by Sampurnanand.

Procedures of Jnanpith Award
The nominations for the Jnanpith Award are received from different literary specialists, teachers, reviewers, universities, and many literary and language organizations. All the nominations are analysed by the commission and their advices are submitted to the Jnanpith Award Selection Board (Pravara Parishad).The recommendations of all language advice-giving committees are evaluated by the panel based on absolute translations of the selected writings. The recipient for a particular year is announced by the Selection Board, which has ultimate authority in collection.

List of Recipients of Jnanpith Award
The awardees of Jnanpith Award are as follows:

1965 - 1966 - Tarashankar Bandopadhyaya - Ganadevta - Bengali
1967 - Dr. K.V. Puttappa - Sri Ramayana Darshanam (Glimpses of Ramayana) - Kannada
1967 - Umashankar 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 Sakharam Khandekar - Yayati - Marathi
1975 - P.V.Akilandam - Chitttrappavai - Tamil
1976 - Asha Purna Devi - Pratham Pratisruti - Bengali
1977 - K.Shivaram Karanth - Mookajjiya Kanasugalu (Mookajji`s dreams) - Kannada
1978 - Sachchidananda Hirananda Vatsyayan - Kitni Navon Men Kitni Bar
(How many times in many boats?) - Hindi
1979 - Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya - Mrityunjay (Immortal) - Assamese
1980 - S. K. Pottekkatt - 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) - ("Natsamrat") Marathi
1988 - Dr. C. Narayana Reddy - Telugu
1989 - Qurratulain Hyder - Urdu
1990 - V. K. Gokak - Bharatha Sindhu Rashmi - Kannada
1991 - Subhas 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
2007- O. N. V. Kurup - Malayalam
2008 - Akhlaq Mohammed Khan `Shahryar` - Urdu
2009 – Amarkant - Hindi
2010 - Chandrashekhara Kambara - Kannada
2011 - Pratibha Ray - Odia
2012 - Ravuri Bharadhwaja - Telugu
2013 - Kedarnath Singh - Hindi
2014 - Bhalchandra Nemade - Marathi
2015 - Raghuveer Chaudhari - Gujarati
2016 - Shankha Ghosh - Bengali
2017 - Krishna Sobti - Hindi

As of 2015, the cash prize has been revised to 11 lakh and out of twenty-three suitable languages the award has been presented for works in fifteen languages: Hindi, Kannada, Bengali, Malayalam, Gujarati, Marathi, Oria and Urdu, Telugu, Assamese, Punjabi, and Tamil, Kashmiri, Konkani, and Sanskrit. The award has been conferred upon fifty-seven writers including seven women authors.