Jnanpith Award is given for the best creative literary writing by any Indian citizen in any of the languages included in the VIII Schedule of the Indian Constitution. It was instituted on May 22, 1961.
The award is presented by the Jnanpith Trust, which is largely owned by the Jain family, publishers of The Times of India. The award presented every year, carries a cheque for Rs 500,000, a citation plaque and a bronze replica of Goddess Saraswathi. The first recipient of the Jnanpith award was Malayalam writer G. Sankara Kurup, in 1965.
