Important Facts For Prelims
Sahitya Akademi Award
- 31 Dec 2021
- 3 min read
Why in News
Recently, the Sahitya Akademi announced the Sahitya Akademi Award 2021 in 20 languages. The Akademi also announced Yuva Puraskar and Bal Sahitya Puraskar for 2021.
Key Points
- About:
- Sahitya Akademi award established in 1954, is a literary honour that is conferred annually by Sahitya Akademi, India’s National Academy of letters.
- Akademi gives 24 awards annually to literary works in the languages it has recognized and an equal number of awards to literary translations from and into the languages of India.
- Besides the 22 languages enumerated in the Constitution of India, the Sahitya Akademi has recognised English and Rajasthani as languages in which its programme may be implemented.
- The Sahitya Akademi award is the second-highest literary honour by the Government of India, after the Jnanpith award.
- Criteria for Choosing Awardee:
- The author must be of Indian Nationality.
- Book/work eligible for the award must be an outstanding contribution to the language and literature to which it belongs.
- When equal merit for books of two or more are found, certain criteria like total literary contribution and standing of authors shall be taken into consideration for declaring the award.
- Other Sahitya Akademi Awards:
- Sahitya Akademi Bal Sahitya Puraskar is given to an author based on his/her total contribution to children literature and relates to books first published during the five years immediately preceding the year of Award.
- Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar relates to books published by an author of the age of 35 and below.
Jnanpith Award
- The Jnanpith award is the highest literary award in India and can only be conferred annually upon an Indian citizen.
- English along with other languages mentioned in Indian Constitution (8th Schedule) is considered for the Award.
- The prize carries a cash award of Rs. 11 lakhs, a citation, and a bronze replica of Vagdevi (Saraswati), the goddess of learning.
- It is sponsored by the cultural organization Bharatiya Jnanpith.
- Assamese poet Nilmani Phookan Jr has won the 56th Jnanpith Award (2021), and Konkani novelist Damodar Mauzo has won the 57th Jnanpith Award (2022).
