| S.No. | Image | Name Of Awardee | Year Of Award | Language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | G.S. Kurup | 1965 | Malayalam | |
| 2 | T. S. Bandyopadhyaya | 1966 | Bangla | |
| 3 | Uma Shankar Joshi | 1967 | Gujarati | |
| 4 | K.V. Puttappa | 1967 | Kannada | |
| 5 | Sumitranandan Pant | 1968 | Hindi | |
| 6 | Firaq Gorakhpuri | 1969 | Urdu | |
| 7 | V. Satyanarayana | 1970 | Telugu | |
| 8 | Bishnu Dey | 1971 | Bangla | |
| 9 | R.S. ‘Dinkar’ | 1972 | Hindi | |
| 10 | D.R. Bendre | 1973 | Kannada | |
| 11 | Gopinath Mohanty | 1973 | Oriya | |
| 12 | V.S. Khandekar | 1974 | Marathi | |
| 13 | P.V. Akilandam | 1975 | Tamil | |
| 14 | Ashapurna Devi | 1976 | Bangla | |
| 15 | K.S. Karanth | 1977 | Kannada | |
| 16 | S.H.V. Ajneya | 1978 | Hindi | |
| 17 | B.K. Bhattacharya | 1979 | Assamese | |
| 18 | S.K. Pottekkatt | 1980 | Malayalam | |
| 19 | Amrita Pritam | 1981 | Punjabi | |
| 20 | Mahadevi Varma | 1982 | Hindi | |
| 21 | Masti V. Iyengar | 1983 | Kannada | |
| 22 | Thakazhi S. Pillai | 1984 | Malayalam | |
| 23 | Pannalal Patel | 1985 | Gujarati | |
| 24 | Satchidananda Rautroy | 1986 | Oriya | |
| 25 | V.V.S. ‘Kusumagraj’ | 1987 | Marathi | |
| 26 | C. Narayana Reddy | 1988 | Telugu | |
| 27 | Qurratulain Hyder | 1989 | Urdu | |
| 28 | V. K. Gokak | 1990 | Kannada | |
| 29 | Subhash Mukhopadhyaya | 1991 | Bangla | |
| 30 | Naresh Mehta | 1992 | Hindi | |
| 31 | Sitakant Mahapatra | 1993 | Oriya | |
| 32 | U.R. Anantha Murthy | 1994 | Kannada | |
| 33 | M.T. Vasudevan Nair | 1995 | Malayalam | |
| 34 | Mahasveta Devi | 1996 | Bangla | |
| 35 | Ali Sardar Jafri | 1997 | Urdu | |
| 36 | Girish Karnad | 1998 | Kannada | |
| 37 | Gurdial Singh | 1999 | Punjabi | |
| 38 | Nirmal Verma | 1999 | Hindi | |
| 39 | Indira Goswami | 2000 | Assamese | |
| 40 | Rajendra Shah | 2001 | Gujarati | |
| 41 | D. Jayakanthan | 2002 | Tamil | |
| 42 | Vinda Karandikar | 2003 | Marathi | |
| 43 | Rahman Rahi | 2004 | Kashmiri | |
| 44 | Kunwar Narain | 2005 | Hindi | |
| 45 | Ravindra Kelekar | 2006 | Konkani | |
| 46 | Satya Vrat Shastri | 2006 | Sanskrit | |
| 47 | O.N.V. Kurup | 2007 | Malayalam | |
| 48 | Shahryar | 2008 | Urdu | |
| 49 | Shrilal Shukla | 2009 | Hindi | |
| 50 | Amarkant | 2009 | Hindi | |
| 51 | Chandrasekhar Kambar | 2010 | Kannada | |
| 52 | Pratibha Ray | 2011 | Oriya | |
| 53 | Ravuri Bharatwaja | 2012 | Telugu | |
| 54 | Kedarnath Singh | 2013 | Hindi | |
| 55 | Bhalchandra Nemade | 2014 | Marathi | |
| 56 | Raghuveer Chaudhari | 2015 | Gujarati | |
| 57 | Shankha Ghosh | 2016 | Bangla | |
| 58 | Krishna Sobti | 2017 | Hindi | |
| 59 | Amitav Ghosh | 2018 | English | |
| 60 | Akkitham | 2019 | Malayalam | |
| 61 | Nilamoni Phukan | 2021 | Assamese | |
| 62 | Damodar Mauzo | 2022 | Konkani |
