Who was the first recipient of the Jnanpith Award, and for which work?
- Sumitranandan Pant — Hindi, 1968, Chidambara
- G. Sankara Kurup — Malayalam, 1965, Odakkuzhal
- Tarashankar Bandyopadhyay — Bengali, 1966, Ganadevata
- Ramdhari Singh Dinkar — Hindi, 1972, Urvashi
Answer: G. Sankara Kurup — Malayalam poet, recognised in 1965 for Odakkuzhal (The Bamboo Flute)
- Sankara Kurup, a Malayalam poet, received the inaugural Jnanpith Award in 1965 for his poetry collection Odakkuzhal (The Bamboo Flute), published in 1950. The citation ceremony was held on 19 November 1966. Kurup was the first of sixty recipients across sixty editions of the award from 1965 to 2025.