» The first Jnanpith Award was given in 1965.
» The Jnanpith Award carries a citation, shawl, srifal, a bronze idol of Vagdevi Saraswati and a cash prize of Rs. 7,00,000
| Year | Recipient | Work |
| 1965 | G. Shankar Kurup | Auda Kujai (Malayalam) |
| 1966 | Tara Shankar Bandyopadhyay | Ganadevata (Bengali) |
| 1967 | K.V. Putappa,Uma Shankar Joshi | Ramayan Darshanam (Kannada), Nisheeth (Gujarati) |
| 1968 | Sumitra Nandan Pant | Chidambara (Hindi) |
| 1969 | Prof. Raghupati Sahay (Firaq Gorakhpuri) | Gul-e-Naghma (Urdu) |
| 1970 | Vishwanath Satyanarayana | Shreemad Ramayan Kalpavriksham (Telugu) |
| 1971 | Vishnu Dey | Smriti Satta Bhavishya (Bengali) |
| 1972 | Ramdhari Singh 'Dinkar' | Urvashi (Hindi) |
| 1973 | Gopinath Mohanty, D.R Bendre | Mati Matal (Oriya), Naku Thandi(Kannada) |
| 1974 | Vishnu Sakharam Khandekar | Yayati (Marathi) |
| 1975 | P.V. Akilandam | Chittirappavai (Tamil) |
| 1976 | Smt. Ashapurna Devi | Pratham Pratishruti (Bengali) |
| 1977 | Dr.K. Shivram Karanth | Mukajjiya Kanasugalu (Kannada) |
| 1978 | Dr Sachidananda Hiranand Vatsyayana 'Agyeya' | Kitni Nawon Mein Kitni Bar (Hindi) |
| 1979 | Dr. Virendra Kumar Bhattacharya | Mrityunjay (Assamia) |
| 1980 | S.K Pottekat | Oru Dishatinte Katha (Malayalam) |
| 1981 | Amrita Pritam | Kagaz te Canvas (Panjabi) |
| 1982 | Mahadevi Verma | Yama (Hindi) |
| 1983 | Masti Venkatesh Iyengar | Chikaveer Rajendra (Kannada) |
| 1984 | T. Shiv Shankar Pillai | Kayar (Malayalam) |
| 1985 | Pannalal Patel | Manvini Bhavai (Gujarati) |
| 1986 | Sachida Nanda Routroy | Oriya Literature |
| 1987 | Vishnu Vaman Shirwadkar | Marathi Literature |
| 1988 | Dr. C. Narayana Reddy | Telugu Literature |
| 1989 | Qurrtul - ain - Hyder | Urdu Literature |
| 1990 | Prof. Vinayak Krishna Gokak | Kannada Literature |
| 1991 | Subhash Mukhopadhyay | Bengali Literature |
| 1992 | Naresh Mehta | Hindi Literature |
| 1993 | Dr. Sitakant Mahapatra | Oriya Literature |
| 1994 | Prof. U. R. Ananthamurthy | Kannada Literature |
| 1995 | M.T. Vasudevan Nair | Malayalam Literature |
| 1996 | Mrs. Mahashweta Devi | Bengali Literature |
| 1997 | Ali Sardar Jafri | Urdu Literature |
| 1998 | Girish Kamad | Kannada Literature |
| 1999 | Nirmal Verma, Gurdayal Singh | Hindi Literature, Punjabi Literature |
| 2000 | Dr. Indira Goswami | Assamese Literature |
| 2001 | Rajendra Keshavlal Shah | Gujarati Literature |
| 2002 | D. Jayakanthan | Tamil Literature |
| 2003 | Vinda Karandikar | Marathi Literature |
| 2004 | Rehman Rahi | Kashmiri |
| 2005 | Kunwar Narayan | Hindi Literature |
| 2006 | Satyavrat Shastri, Ravindra Kelekar | Sanskrit Literature, Konkani Literature |
| 2007 | O.N.V. Kurup | Malayalam Literature |
| 2008 | Akhlaq Mohammad Khan 'Shaharyar' | Urdu Literature |
| 2009 | Amarkant and Shrilal Shukla | Hindi Literature |
| 2010 | Chandrashekhar Kambar | Kannada Literature |
| 2011 | Pratibha Ray | Odiya Literature |
| 2012 | Ravuri Bharadhwaja | Telugu Literature |
| 2013 | Kedar Nath Singh | Hindi Literature |