It is mind-boggling to think that Ashapurna Devi was born into an extremely conservative family where the female children were barred from going to school and only the boys had the luxury of getting private tutors. New Delhi: Every year, the Bharatiya Jnanpith presents the Jnanpith Award to an author for their immense contribution to the field of literature. It is the oldest and the highest literary award in India.
The award was established in 1961 and is given only to Indian writers who have written in Indian languages included in the Indian Constitution’s Eighth Schedule and English. This year, Gulzar, the Urdu poet and Bollywood writer and Sanskrit scholar Jagadguru Rambhadracharya have been selected for the Jnanpith Award. Who was the first woman to receive the Jnanpith Award? Born on January 8, 1909, Ashapurna Devi, also Ashapoorna Devi was the first woman to receive the Jnanpith Award.
She was a prominent novelist and poet in Bengali. In 1976, she was awarded the Jnanpith Award. The Government of India honoured her with Padma Shri in the same year.
In 1989, the Vishwa Bharati University honoured her with Deshikottam. In 1994, she was honoured with the Sahitya Akamedi Fellowship for her contribution as a novelist and short story writer. A childhood of self-education It is mind-boggling to think that Ashapurna Devi was born into an extremely conservative family where the female children were barred from going to school and only the boys had the luxury of getting private.