NEW DELHI: The Jnanpith Award Selection Committee announced the 58th Jnanpith Award for the year 2023. This year it has been decided to award two eminent writers: Jagatguru Shri Rambhadracharya for Sanskrit and famous lyricist Gulzar for Urdu respectively.

The decision was taken in a meeting of the selection committee chaired by Jnanpith awardee, noted litterateur Smt. Pratibha Rai. Other members of the selection committee were Shri Madhav Kaushik, Shri Damodar Maujo, Prof. Suranjan Das, Prof. Purushottam Bilmale, Shri Praful Shiledar, Prof. Harish Trivedi, Sh. Prabha Verma, Dr. Janaki Prasad Sharma, Sh A. Krishna Rao and Jnanpith director Sh Madhusudan Anand.

It may be noted that since 1965, this award has been given annually by Bharatiya Jnanpith, established in 1944, for outstanding contribution to Indian literature. This award is being given for the second time for Sanskrit language and for the fifth time for Urdu language. The country’s highest literary honour, Jnanpith Award, will carry prize money of Rs 11 lakh, a statue of Vagdevi and a citation.

Born in 1950 in Khandikhurd village of Jaunpur (Uttar Pradesh), Shri Rambhadracharya is an eminent scholar, educationist, polyglot, writer, preacher, philosopher and a religious leader living in Chitrakoot, UP. He is one of the present four Jagadguru Ramanandacharyas of the Ramananda sect and has been holding this position since 1988. He is the founder president of Tulsi Peeth, a religious and social service institution named after Saint Tulsidas that is based in Chitrakoot. He is a polyglot who speaks 22 languages. He is a poet and writer in many languages including Sanskrit, Hindi, Awadhi, and Maithili. He has authored more than 240 books and texts, including four epics (two in Sanskrit and two in Hindi), a Hindi commentary on the Ramcharitmanas, a poetic Sanskrit commentary on Ashtadhyayi and Sanskrit commentaries on Prasthanatroyi (Brahmasutra, Bhagavad Gita and Pradhan Upanishads). He is considered among lndia’s best known experts on Tulsidas and is the editor of an authentic copy of Ramcharitmanas, published by Tulsi Peeth. ln 2015, the Government of lndia honored him with Padma Vibhushan.

Sampooran Singh Kalra (born 1934), popularly known as Gulzar, is a famous lyricist of Hindi films. Apart from this, he is a poet, screenwriter, film director, playwright and famous poet. His works are mainly in Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi. Gulzar has also been awarded the Sahitya Academy Award in 2002 and the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award given by the Government of lndia, in 2004. ln the year 2009, he received the Oscar Award for Best Song for Joi Ho written by him in the film Slumdog Millionaire directed by Danny Boyle. He has also been honored with a Grammy Award for the same song. Along with his long film journey, Gulzar has been setting new milestones in the field of literature. ln poetry, he invented a new genre “Triveni” which is a non-mukaffa poem of three lines. Gulzar has always created something new through his poetry. For some time now he has also been paying serious attention to children’s poetry.

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