Context: Renowned Urdu poet Gulzar and Sanskrit scholar Jagadguru Rambhadracharya will receive the 58th Jnanpith Award.

Jnanpith Award

• About: The Jnanpith Award stands as the oldest and most prestigious literary award in India.
• Annually conferred by: Bharatiya Jnanpith to authors for their exceptional contributions to literature.
• Instituted in: 1961
• Eligibility Criteria: The award is exclusively for Indian writers composing in Indian languages specified in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India, along with English.

oPosthumous awards are not granted.

• Evolution of the Award Criteria: Initially (1965-1981), the award recognized authors for their "most outstanding work," offering a citation plaque, cash prize, and a bronze replica of Saraswati.

oG. Sankara Kurup, a Malayalam writer, was the inaugural recipient in 1965 for his poetry collection "Odakkuzhal."

• Language and Gender Representation: The award encompasses works in sixteen languages out of twenty-three eligible ones.
• Hindi leads with eleven awards, followed by Kannada with eight.

oAshapoorna Devi, a Bengali novelist, was the first woman awardee in 1976 for her novel "Prothom Protishruti."

• Recent Awardees: In 2023, Sanskrit scholar Rambhadracharya and Urdu writer Gulzar were jointly honored as the most recent recipients of the award.