Context: Renowned Urdu poet, Bollywood writer, and director Gulzar, along with Sanskrit scholar Jagadguru Rambhadracharya, have been chosen for the prestigious Jnanpith Award, regarded as one of the highest literary honors in the country.

About Jnanpith Award

• The Jnanpith Award is one of the most prestigious literary awards in India.

• It is presented annually by the Bharatiya Jnanpith, a literary and research organization, to recognize outstanding contributions to Indian literature.

• The Bharatiya Jnanpith, a research and cultural institute founded in 1944 by industrialist Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain of the Sahu Jain family.

• The word "Jnanpith" is derived from the Sanskrit words "jnan," meaning knowledge, and "pith," meaning seat or throne.

• Established in 1961, the Jnanpith Award is given to Indian authors who have made significant and lasting contributions to the enrichment of Indian literature.

• The award is not limited to any particular language or region and is conferred on writers for their outstanding work in in Indian languages included in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India and English, with no posthumous conferral.

• The recipient of the Jnanpith Award receives a cash prize, a citation, and a bronze replica of Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of knowledge, music, and the arts.

• The award aims to honor and encourage literary excellence and has become a symbol of the highest achievement in the field of Indian literature.

• The first recipient of the award was the Malayalam writer G. Sankara Kurup who received the award in 1965 for his collection of poems, Odakkuzhal (The Bamboo Flute), published in 1950.