The Saraswati Samman is an annual award for outstanding prose or poetry literary works in any of the 23 languages of India listed in Schedule VIII of the Constitution of India. It is named after the Hindu goddess of knowledge, Saraswati.
History and selection process The Saraswati Samman was instituted in 1991 by the K. K. Birla Foundation. It consists of ₹15,00,000, a citation and a plaque. Candidates are selected from literary works published in the previous ten years by a panel that included scholars and former award winners. The inaugural award was given to Harivansh Rai 'Bachchan' for his four volume autobiography, Kya Bhooloon Kya Yaad Karoon, Needa Ka Nirman Phir, Basere Se Door and Dashdwar se Sopan Tak.
Shankha Ghosh, the 1998 recipient of Saraswati Samman, went on to win India's highest literary honor Jnanpith Award in 2016. Three recipients of Saraswati Samman -- Manubhai Pancholi (1997), Govind Chandra Pande (2003), and Veerappa Moily (2014) -- received Moortidevi Award, considered the second highest after the Jnanpith Award, in 1987, 2000, and 2007, respectively.
Awardees
+ Year Image Recipient Work Language Ref. 1991 Harivansh Rai BachchanAutobiography in four volumes (Autobiography)Hindi 1992 Ramakant Rath "Sri Radha" (Poetry)Odia 1993 Vijaya Tendulkar "Kanyadaan" (Play)Marathi 1994 Harbhajan Singh "Rukh Te Rishi" (Poetry collection)Punjabi 1995 Balamani Amma "Nivedyam" (Poetry collection)Malayalam 1996 Shamsur Rahman Faruqi "She`r-e Shor-Angez" Urdu 1997 Photo Unavailable Manubhai Pancholi "Kurukshetra" Gujarati 1998 Shankha Ghosh "Gandharba Kabita Guccha" (Poetry collection)Bengali 1999 Photo UnavailableIndira Parthasarathy "Ramanujar" (Play)Tamil 2000 Manoj Das "Amruta Phala" (Novel) Odia 2001 Dalip Kaur Tiwana "Katha Kaho Urvashi" (Novel) Punjabi 2002 Mahesh Elkunchwar "Yugant" (Play) Marathi 2003 Phot UnavailableGovind Chandra Pande "Bhagirathi" (Poetry collection)Sanskrit 2004 Sunil Gangopadhyay "Pratham Alo" (Novel) Bengali 2005 K. Ayyappa Panicker "Ayyappa Panikarude Kritikal" (Poetry collection) Malayalam 2006 Jagannath Prasad Das "Parikrama" (Poetry collection) Odia 2007 Naiyer Masud "Taoos Chaman Ki Myna" (Short stories collection)Urdu 2008 Lakshmi Nandan Bora "Kayakalpa" (Novel) Assamese 2009 Surjit Paatar "Lafzan Di Dargah" Punjabi 2010 S. L. Bhyrappa "Mandra" Kannada 2011 Photo UnavailableA. A. Manavalan "Irama Kathaiyum Iramayakalum" Tamil 2012 Sugathakumari "Manalezhuthu" (Poetry collection)Malayalam Poetry Collection 2013 Govind Mishra "Dhool Paudho Par" (Novel) HindiNovel 2014 Veerappa Moily "Ramayana Mahanveshanam" (Poetry) Kannada Poetry 2015 Padma Sachdev "Chitt-Chete" (Autobiography) Dogri 2016 Mahabaleshwar Sail "Hawthan" (Novel) Konkani Novel 2017 Sitanshu Yashaschandra "Vakhar" (Poetry collection) Gujarati Poetry2018K Siva Reddy"Pakkaki Ottigilite" (Poetry)TeluguPoetry2019Vasdev Mohi"Chequebook" (Short Story Series) SindhiShort Stories2020 Photo Unavailable Sharankumar Limbale"Sanatan" (Novel)MarathiNovel 2021Ram Darash Mishra "Main to Yahan Hun" (Poetry) Hindi Poetry 2022 Photo Unavailable Sivasankari"Surya Vamsam" (Memoir)TamilMemoir2023Prabha Varma"Roudra Sathwikam" (Novel in verse)MalayalamVerse Novel2024Bhadreshdas Swami"Swaminarayana Siddhanta Sudha"Sanskrit2025Photo UnavailableDr. Ramkumar MukhopadhyayHara Parbati KathaBengaliNovel
Recipients by language Saraswati Samman has been presented for works in sixteen languages. The 34 awardees from 1991 to 2024 wrote in the following languages: Language Number Malayalam 4 Hindi3 Marathi Odia Punjabi Bengali Tamil2 Gujarati Kannada Sanskrit Urdu Assamese1 Dogri Konkani Sindhi Telugu
See also Jnanpith Award, considered India's highest literary honor that is conferred by the Bharatiya Jnanpith. Moortidevi Award, another annual literary honor, regarded as the second highest, and also awarded by the Bharatiya Jnanpith.
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