Wikipedia:Today's featured list/June 1, 2018
The Jnanpith Award is an Indian literary award presented annually by the Bharatiya Jnanpith to an author for their "outstanding contribution towards literature". Instituted in 1961, the award is bestowed only on Indian writers writing in Indian languages included in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India and English, with no posthumous conferral. From 1965 till 1981, the award consisted of a citation plaque, a cash prize of ₹1 lakh (equivalent to ₹67 lakh or US$84,000 in 2023), and a bronze replica of Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of knowledge and wisdom. The first recipient of the award was the Malayalam writer G. Sankara Kurup who received the award in 1965 for his collection of poems, Odakkuzhal (The Bamboo Flute), published in 1950. The cash prize has been revised to ₹11 lakh (equivalent to ₹17 lakh or US$21,000 in 2023) and out of twenty-three eligible languages the award has been presented for works in fifteen languages. The award has been conferred upon fifty-seven writers including seven women authors. The most recent recipient of the award is Hindi fiction writer and essayist Krishna Sobti (pictured) who was awarded for the year 2017. (Full list...)