Jnanpith award is the oldest Indian literary award which is annually presented by the Bhartiya Jnanpith to an author who has an outstanding contribution to literature. It is the oldest and the highest literary award in India and this award is only given to Indian authors who write in Indian languages. The Indian languages included in the Jnanpith award are according to the 8 schedules of the constitution of India. The eight schedules to the constitution of India consist of 22 languages, Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Kannada, Hindi, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Marathi, Manipuri, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Santali, Sindhi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu.
| Year | Winners | language |
| 2021 | Damodar Mauzo | Konkani |
| 2020 | Nilamani Phookan | Assamese |
| 2019 | Akkitham Achuthan Namboothiri | Malayalam |
| 2018 | Amitav Ghosh | English |
| 2017 | Krishna Sobti | Hindi |
| 2016 | Shanka Ghosh | Bengali |
| 2015 | Dr. Raghuvir Chaudhari | Gujarati |
| 2014 | Bhalchandra Nemade | Marathi |
| 2013 | Kedarnath Singh | Hindi |
| 2012 | Ravauri Bharadwaj | Telugu |
| 2011 | Pratibha Ray | Odia |
| 2010 | Chandrashekhar Kambara | Kannada |
| 2009 | Shrilal Shukla Amar Kant | Hindi |
| 2008 | Akhlaq Mohammed Khan | Urdu |
| 2007 | Dr. O.N.V Kurup | Malayalam |
| 2006 | Satya Vrat Shastri | Sanskrit |
| 2006 | Ravindra Kelekar | Konkani |
| 2005 | Kunwar Narayan | Hindi |
| 2004 | Rehman Rahi | Kashmiri |
| 2003 | Vinda Karandikar | Marathi |
| 2002 | D. Jayakanthan | Tamil |
| 2001 | Rajendra Keshavial Shah | Gujarati |
| 2000 | Indira Goswami | Assamese |
| 1999 | Nirmal Verma | Hindi |
| 1999 | Gurdial Singh | Punjabi |
| 1999 | Nirmal Verma | Hindi |
| 1998 | Girish Karnad | Kannada |
| 1997 | Ali Sardar Jafri | Urdu |
| 1996 | Mahasweta Devi | Bengali |
| 1995 | Dr. M. T. Vasudevan Nair | Malayalam |
| 1994 | U. R. Ananthamurthy | Kannada |
| 1993 | Sitakant Mahapatra | Oriya |
| 1992 | Naresh Mehta | Hindi |
| 1991 | Subhas Mukhopadhyay | Bengali |
| 1990 | Vinayaka Krishna Gokak | Kannada |
| 1989 | Qurratulain Hyder | Urdu |
| 1988 | Dr. C. Narayana Reddy | Telugu |
| 1987 | Vishnu Vaman Shirwadkar | Marathi |
| 1986 | Sachidananda Routray | Oriya |
| 1985 | Pannalal Patel | Gujarati |
| 1984 | Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai | Malayalam |
| 1983 | Masti Venkatesh Iyengar | Kannada |
| 1982 | Mahadevi Varma | Hindi |
| 1981 | Amrita Pritam | Punjabi |
| 1980 | S. K. Pottekkatt | Malayalam |
| 1979 | Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya | Assamese |
| 1978 | Sachchidananda Hirananda Vatsyayan ‘Ajneya’ | Hindi |
| 1977 | K. Shivaram Karanth | Kannada |
| 1976 | Ashapurna Devi | Bengali |
| 1975 | P. V. Akilan | Tamil |
| 1974 | Vishnu Sakharam Khandekar | Marathi |
| 1973 | Gopinath Mohanty | Oriya |
| 1973 | Dattatreya Ramachandra Bendre | Kannada |
| 1972 | Ramdhari Singh Dinkar | Hindi |
| 1971 | Bishnu Dey | Bengali |
| 1970 | Viswanatha Satyanarayana | Telugu |
| 1969 | Firaq Gorakhpuri | Urdu |
| 1968 | Sumitranandan Pant | Hindi |
| 1967 | Umashankar Joshi | Gujarati |
| 1967 | Kuppali Venkatappagowda Puttappa | Kannada |
| 1966 | Tarashankar Bandyopadhyay | Bengali |
| 1965 | G. Sankara Kurup | Malayalam |
The first Jnanpith award winner was G. Shankara Kurup, in 1965. He was a well-known Indian poet literary critic of Malayalam literature and essayist, he is also known as “The Great Poet G”. The first English writer who won the Jnanpith award is Amitav Ghosh in 2018. The first woman to win the Jnanpith award is Ashapurna Devi 1976, who was a Bengali writer. The most recent Jnanpith award winners in 2021 and 2020 were Assamese poet Nilmani Phookan Jr. and Damodar Mauzo who is a Konkani novelist.
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