Gyanpith Award Winners (Highest award in literature)

1965 — G. Sankara Kurup – Odakkuzhal [Flute] (Malayalam) 
1966 — Tarashankar Bandopadhyaya – Ganadevta (Bengali)
1967 — Kuppali Venkatappagowda Puttappa (Kuvempu) – Sri Ramayana Darshanam (Kannada) 
1967 — Umashankar Joshi – Nishitha (Gujarati)
1968 — Sumitranandan Pant – Chidambara (Hindi)
1969 — Firaq Gorakhpuri – Gul-e-Naghma (Urdu)
1970 — Viswanatha Satyanarayana – Ramayana Kalpavrikshamu [A resourceful tree—Ramayana] (Telugu)
1971 — Bishnu Dey Smriti – Satta Bhavishyat (Bengali)
1972 — Ramdhari Singh 'Dinkar' – Urvashi (Hindi)
1973 — Dattatreya Ramachandra Bendre – Nakutanti [Naku Thanthi (Four Strings)] (Kannada)
1973 — Gopinath Mohanty – Paraja (Oriya)
1974 — Vishnu Sakharam Khandekar – Yayati (Marathi)
1975 — P. V. Akilan – Chitttrappavai (Tamil)
1976 — Ashapurna Devi – Pratham Pratisruti (Bengali)
1977 — K. Shivaram Karanth – Mookajjiya Kanasugalu [Mookajjis dreams] (Kannada)
1978 — Sachchidananda Hirananda Vatsyayan 'Ajneya' – Kitni Navon Men Kitni Bar (Hindi)
1979 — Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya – Mrityunjay [Immortal] (Assamese)
1980 — S. K. Pottekkatt – Oru Desathinte Katha [Story of a land] (Malayalam)
1981 — Amrita Pritam – Kagaj te Canvas (Punjabi)
1982 — Mahadevi Varma – Yama (Hindi)
1983 — Maasti Venkatesh Ayengar – Chikkaveera Rajendra [Life and struggle of Kodava King Chikkaveera Rajendra] (Kannada)
1984 — Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai – Kayar [Coir] (Malayalam)
1985 — Pannalal Patel – Maanavi Ni Bhavaai (Gujarati)
1986 — Sachidananda Rout Roy (Oriya)
1987 — Vishnu Vaman Shirwadkar (Kusumagraj) – Natsamrat (Marathi)
1988 — Dr.C. Narayana Reddy – Vishwambhara (Telugu)
1989 — Qurratulain Hyder – Akhire Shab Ke Humsafar (Urdu) 
1990 — V. K. Gokak (Vinayaka Krishna Gokak) – Bharatha Sindhu Rashmi (Kannada)
1991 — Subhas Mukhopadhyay – Padati (Bengali)
1992 — Naresh Mehta (Hindi)
1993 — Sitakant Mahapatra – "for outstanding contribution to the enrichment of Indian literature, 1973-92" (Oriya)
1994 — U. R. Ananthamurthy – for his contributions to (Kannada) literature (Kannada) 
1995 — M. T. Vasudevan Nair – Randamoozham [Second Chance] (Malayalam)
1996 — Mahasweta Devi – Hajar Churashir Ma (Bengali) 
1997 — Ali Sardar Jafri (Urdu)
1998 — Girish Karnad – "for his contributions to (Kannada) literature and for contributions to (Kannada) theater (yayati)" (Kannada)
1999 — Nirmal Verma (Hindi) 
1999 — Gurdial Singh (Punjabi)
2000 — Indira Goswami (Assamese) 
2001 — Rajendra Keshavlal Shah (Gujarati)
2002 — D. Jayakanthan (Tamil)
2003 — Vinda Karandikar – Ashtadarshana (poetry) (Marathi)
2004 — Rahman Rahi – Subhuk Soda, Kalami Rahi and Siyah Rode Jaren Manz (Kashmiri)
2005 — Kunwar Narayan (Hindi)
2006 — Ravindra Kelekar (Konkani) 
2006 — Satya Vrat Shastri (Sanskrit)
2007 — O. N. V. Kurup (Malayalam)
2008 — Akhlaq Mohammed Khan 'Shahryar' (Urdu)
2009 — Amar Kant (Hindi) 
2009 — Shrilal Shukla (Hindi)
2010 — Chandrashekhara Kambara – for his contributions to Kannada literature (Kannada)
2011 — Pratibha Ray (Oriya)
2012 — Ravuri Bharadhwaja – For his contributions to Telugu literature