Ramabhadracharya and Gulzar to be honoured with 58th Jnanpith Award

New Delhi: Renowned scholars Jagadguru Ramabhadracharya in Sanskrit and Urdu literary figure Gulzar will be conferred with the 58th Jnanpith Award.

The selection committee for the Jnanpith Awards announced the recipients for the year 2023 on Saturday.

In a statement, the Committee said, "The decision has been made to award the 58th Jnanpith Award to eminent authors in two languages, Jagadguru Ramabhadracharya (Sanskrit literature) and Shri Gulzar (Urdu literature).

The selection committee meeting was chaired by renowned storyteller and Jnanpith laureate Pratibha Ray. Madhav Kaushik, Damodar Mouzo, Prof. Suranjan Das, Prof. Purushottam Bilimale, Prafulla Shiledar, Prof. Harish Trivedi, Prabha Varma, Dr Janaki Prasad Sharma, A. Krishna Rao, and Jnanpith Director Madhusudan Anand were among other members of the selection committee.

Ramabhadracharya, a resident of Chitrakoot in Uttar Pradesh, is a renowned scholar, educator, polyglot, author, lecturer, philosopher, and Hindu spiritual leader. He is the founder and chairman of Tulsi Peeth, a religious and social service institution established in the name of Saint Tulsidas in Chitrakoot.

He is proficient in multiple languages and speaks 22 languages. He is a poet and author in Sanskrit, Hindi, Awadhi, Maithili, and several other languages, having written over 240 books and texts. His four epics are written in both Sanskrit and Hindi languages. He was previously honoured with the Padma Vibhushan in 2015.

Gulzar, whose real name is Sampooran Singh Kalra (born in 1934), is a renowned lyricist for Hindi films. Additionally, he is a poet, screenplay writer, film director, playwright, and renowned poet primarily in Hindi, Urdu, and Punjabi. He was previously honoured with the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2002 and the Padma Bhushan in 2004. Alongside his extensive film career, Gulzar continues to explore new horizons in the field of literature. He has pioneered a new form of poetry called 'Triveni', which is a non-metrical verse composed of three lines.

It is noteworthy that the Sanskrit language is being honoured with this award for the second time and Urdu for the fifth time. The winners of the country's highest literary honour, the Jnanpith Award, will receive a cash prize of Rs. 11 lakh, a statue of Goddess Saraswati, and a citation.