Literary Awards – Railway Exams GK Capsule

“Awards are the milestones that immortalise words.”
Expected 2–3 questions every year in RRB/RPF CBT.

1. Introduction & Exam Relevance

• RRB NTPC, Group-D, JE, ALP, Technician & RPF ask 1–2 questions on:
  • Highest literary honours of India & World
  • First recipients / Latest recipients / Languages
  • Award money & instituting bodies
• Weight-age: 1–2 marks → 100% accuracy zone with this sheet

2. Bharatiya Jnanpith Award (ज्ञानपीठ पुरस्कार)

Quick Table – First 10 Winners

3. Sahitya Akademi Award (साहित्य अकादमी पुरस्कार)

4. Jnanpith vs Sahitya Akademi – Side-by-Side

5. International Awards – Memory Hooks

6. Other Indian Literary Honours

7. One-Liner Rapid-Fire (RRB Revisions)

1. Jnanpith started in 1961 but first given 1965.
2. Kuvempu (K. V. Puttappa) first Kannada Jnanpith; wrote Ramayana Darshanam.
3. Amitav Ghosh first English winner of Jnanpith (2018) – (fact: wait-listed, English still not honoured).
4. Sankara Kurup – only Malayalam poet to get Padma Vibhushan + Jnanpith.
5. Sahitya Akademi Fellowship (highest) – first to S. Radhakrishnan 1954.
6. Booker 2022 – Shehan Karunatilaka (Sri Lanka) & Geetanjali Shree (Int.).
7. Tagore won Nobel 1913 for Gitanjali (Song Offerings).
8. Jhumpa Lahiri – Pulitzer 2000 for Interpreter of Maladies.
9. RRRLF – Raja Rammohan Roy Library Foundation awards for librarians.
10. Bhasha Samman – Sahitya Akademi for classical & tribal languages.
11. Saraswati Samman money – ₹ 15 lakh.
12. Moortidevi – only Indian authors; no posthumous.
13. Anita Desai nominated 5 times for Booker but never won.
14. Odisha gives Atibadi Jagannath Das Samman for Odia lit..
15. Assam gives Bhasha Gaurav & Ananda Ram Baruah awards.

8. Quick Reference Table – First Indian Winners

9. MCQ Practice – 15 Questions

Choose the correct option.

1. Who was the first recipient of the Jnanpith Award?

   • a) K.V. Puttappa
   • b) G. Sankara Kurup
   • c) Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay
   • d) Sumitranandan Pant

2. Jnanpith Award is given for outstanding contribution in how many Indian languages?

   • a) 15
   • b) 22 + English
   • c) 18
   • d) 24

3. The cash prize accompanying the Jnanpith Award (2023) is

   • a) ₹ 5 lakh
   • b) ₹ 11 lakh
   • c) ₹ 15 lakh
   • d) ₹ 21 lakh

4. Which language has bagged the highest number of Sahitya Akademi Awards till date?

   • a) Hindi
   • b) Bengali
   • c) Kannada
   • d) Malayalam

5. Who among the following got the Nobel Prize before India’s independence?

   • a) C. V. Raman
   • b) Rabindranath Tagore
   • c) Mother Teresa
   • d) Amartya Sen

6. First Indian to win the Booker Prize is

   • a) Arundhati Roy
   • b) Salman Rushdie
   • c) Kiran Desai
   • d) Geetanjali Shree

7. The book “Tomb of Sand” originally written in which language?

   • a) Urdu
   • b) Hindi
   • c) Punjabi
   • d) Gujarati

8. Saraswati Samman is instituted by

   • a) Sahitya Akademi
   • b) KK Birla Foundation
   • c) Jnanpith Trust
   • d) Govt. of India

9. Moortidevi Award is given only for

   • a) Poetry
   • b) Fiction
   • c) Indian philosophy & culture
   • d) Translation

10. Vyas Samman is exclusively for writings in

    • a) Sanskrit
    • b) Hindi
    • c) Gujarati
    • d) English

11. Who is the youngest Jnanpith laureate?

    • a) Vishnu Khandekar
    • b) Sitakant Mahapatra
    • c) Ashapoorna Devi
    • d) Mridula Garg

12. Sahitya Akademi Award was NOT given in which of the following years?

    • a) 1955
    • b) 1956
    • c) 1957
    • d) 2015 (returned awards year)

13. International Booker Prize 2022 winner Geetanjali Shree was translated by

    • a) Arshia Sattar
    • b) Daisy Rockwell
    • c) Arunava Sinha
    • d) Anita Desai

14. Which of the following pairs is wrongly matched?

    • a) R.K. Narayan – Sahitya Akademi (English)
    • b) Kuvempu – Jnanpith (Kannada)
    • c) Firaq Gorakhpuri – Urdu Jnanpith
    • d) Mulk Raj Anand – Jnanpith (English)

15. Rabindra Puraskar is given by the state of

    • a) Odisha
    • b) West Bengal
    • c) Assam
    • d) Jharkhand

10. Final Revision Checklist (30-sec)

• Jnanpith: 1965 start, ₹ 11 L, 22+Eng, Amitav Ghosh 2018 (English still awaits)
• Sahitya Akademi: 1955, ₹ 1 L, 24 langs, Bengali max
• Nobel lit.: Tagore 1913, Gitanjali
• Booker: Rushdie 1981 first Indian; Geetanjali Shree 2022 first Hindi Int-Booker
• Pulitzer: Jhumpa Lahiri 2000 (stories)
• Saraswati & Vyas: KK Birla; ₹ 15 L & Hindi only respectively

ALL THE BEST – Two sure-shot marks in your pocket!