Why is the Jnanpith award so prestigious?

The winners&nbsp;of&nbsp;2021&nbsp;Jnanpith&nbsp;have been&nbsp;declared recently.&nbsp;This year’s&nbsp;Assamese poet,&nbsp;Nilmani&nbsp;Phookan&nbsp;Jr, the 56th&nbsp;recipient&nbsp;of the honour and&nbsp;famed Konkani novelist,&nbsp;Damodar&nbsp;Mauzo- the 57th recipient. Previous winner of the&nbsp;Sahitya&nbsp;Akademi&nbsp;Award,&nbsp;Mauzo&nbsp;is best known for his novels and short stories such as&nbsp;"Karmelin"&nbsp;and&nbsp;"Teresa’s Man"&nbsp;among others. Based in Goa, his books have been translated into numerous languages.&nbsp;Phookan, a revered poet, was&nbsp;also the&nbsp;recipient of the&nbsp;Sahitya&nbsp;Akademi&nbsp;Award as well as the Padma Shree. Some of his most famous works include&nbsp;"Surya&nbsp;Henu&nbsp;Nami&nbsp;Ahe&nbsp;Ei&nbsp;Nodiyedi" and&nbsp;"Kobita." He is the third Assamese writer to win the&nbsp;Jnanpith&nbsp;award.&nbsp;Read on to know more about the significance and history of this award.&nbsp;



What is the&nbsp;Jnanpith&nbsp;award?&nbsp; The&nbsp;Jnanpith&nbsp;Award is the oldest and highest honour in literature&nbsp;in the country. It is presented every year by the Bhartiya&nbsp;Jnanpith&nbsp;to recognise an author’s outstanding contribution to literature.&nbsp;The Bhartiya&nbsp;Jnanpith&nbsp;is a&nbsp;cultural&nbsp;organisation dedicated to&nbsp;literature and research.&nbsp;The award is a lifetime honour, and includes a citation plaque, a cash prize as well as a bronze replica of the Hindu goddess of knowledge and wisdom,&nbsp;Saraswati.&nbsp;&nbsp;



History of this award&nbsp; The founder of the Bhartiya&nbsp;Jnanpith&nbsp;organisation,&nbsp;Sahu&nbsp;Shanti Prasad Jain, along with a few other associates decided&nbsp;to establish an honour to recognise outstanding work in the field of literature. The idea of the&nbsp;Jnanpith&nbsp;award hence arose.&nbsp;Although instituted in the year 1961, the first&nbsp;Jnanpith&nbsp;award was&nbsp;awarded in 1965 to&nbsp;Sankar&nbsp;Kurup, a&nbsp;Malyali&nbsp;poet.&nbsp;Earlier, this honour was reserved for Indian writers who wrote in the languages which were mentioned in the Constitution’s 8th&nbsp;schedule (along with English.)&nbsp;



How are the winners selected?&nbsp; The winners are chosen by a Selection Board of seven to eleven highly reputed members. The Board takes into consideration nominations received from critics, literary experts, literary associations, universities, etc. There is also an advisory committee appointed for each language which assists the selection board in the decision-making process. An important&nbsp;rule&nbsp;in this process is that the&nbsp;preceding recipient’s&nbsp;language in which the work&nbsp;was&nbsp;written&nbsp;is&nbsp;ineligible for consideration&nbsp;through&nbsp;the next couple of years.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

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