Jnanpith Award for Marathi poet Vinda Karandikar

   New Delhi: Eminent Marathi poet Govind Vinayak Karandikar, popularly known as Vinda Karandikar, has been chosen for the 39th Jnanpith Award for the year 2003. The decision was taken at the meeting of Jnanpith selection board chaired by Dr LM Sanghvi.

   Born on August 23, 1918, the Modern Marathi poet is not only known for his outstanding contribution in the field of poems, but is a distinguished essayist, critic, translator and recipient of numerous awards including the Asian Prize and the Soviet Land Nehru Award. The Jnanpith Award, instituted on May 22, 1961, 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.

  Its first recipient was Malayalam writer G Shankara Kurup in 1965. The award carries a cheque for Rs. 500,000, a citation plaque and a bronze replica of Vagdevi. Before 1982, the awards were given for a single work by a writer. 1982 onwards, the award has been given for a lifetime contribution to Indian literature. Now it is given for outstanding contribution to creative writing in a specified period of 15 years but excluding the five years immediately preceding the year.

   List of Awardees: 1965 G Sankara Kurup - Odakkuzhal (flute) - Malayalam ,1966 Tarashankar Bandopadhyaya - Ganadevta - Bengali ,1967 Dr. K.V. Puttappa - Sri Ramayana Darshanam (Glimpses of Ramayana) - Kannada , 1967 Uma Shankar Joshi - Nishitha - Gujarati , 1968 Sumitranandan Pant - Chidambara - Hindi , 1969 Firaq Gorakhpuri - Gul-e-Naghma - Urdu , 1970 Viswanatha Satyanarayana - Ramayana Kalpavrikshamu (A resourceful tree:Ramayana) - Telugu 1971 Bishnu Dey - Smriti Satta Bhavishyat - Bengali ,1972 Ramdhari Singh 'Dinkar' - Urvashi - Hindi ,1973 Dattatreya Ramachandra Bendre - Nakutanti - Kannada ,1973 Gopinath Mohanty - Mattimatal - Oriya , 1974 Vishnu Sakaram Khandekar - Yayati - Marathi ,1975 P.V.Akilandam - Chitttrappavai - Tamil 1976 Asha Purna Devi - Pratham Pratisruti - Bengali , 1977 K.Shivaram Karanth - Mukkajjiya Kanasugalu (Nanny's dreams) - Kannada , 1978 S.H.V. Ajneya - Kitni Navon Men Kitni Bar (How many times in many boats?) - Hindi , 1979 Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya - Mrityunjay (Immortal) - ,Assamese 1980 S. K. Pottakkat - Oru Desattinte Katha (Story of a land) - , Malayalam , 1981 Amrita Pritam - Kagaj te Canvas - Punjabi , 1982 Mahadevi Varma - Hindi , 1983 Maasti Venkatesh Ayengar - Chikkaveera Rajendra - Kannada , 1984 Takazhi Sivashankara Pillai - Malayalam , 1985 Pannalal Patel - Gujarati, 1986 Sachidanand Rout Roy - Oriya , 1987 Vishnu Vaman Shirwadkar (Kusumagraj) - Marathi , 1988 Dr.C. Narayana Reddy - Telugu , 1989 Qurratulain Hyder - Urdu , 1990 V. K. Gokak - Bharatha Sindhu Rashmi - Kannada , 1991 Subash Mukhopadhyay - Bengali , 1992 Naresh Mehta - Hindi , 1993 Sitakant Mahapatra - Oriya , 1994 U.R. Ananthamurthy - Kannada , 1995 M. T. Vasudevan Nair - Malayalam , 1996 Mahasweta Devi - Bengali, 1997 Ali Sardar Jafri - Urdu , 1998 Girish Karnad - Kannada , 1999 Nirmal Verma - Hindi , 1999 Gurdial Singh - Punjab,i 2000 Indira Goswami - Assamese , 2001 Rajendra Keshavlal Shah - Gujarati , 2002 D. Jayakanthan - Tamil.

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