Renowned Urdu poet Gulzar and Sanskrit scholar Jagadguru Swami Rambhadracharya will be honoured with the 58th Jnanpith Award.

The Jnanpith Award Selection Committee on Saturday announced that Jnanpith Award-2023 was being given to two eminent writers – Jagadguru Rambhadracharya for Sanskrit and Gulzar for Urdu respectively.

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Sampooran Singh Kalra, popularly known as Gulzar, has penned several memorable and iconic songs in Hindi cinema.

Gulzar started his career as a lyricist with the film ‘Kabuliwala’ starring Balraj Sahni.

The legendary lyricist has penned songs and scripts in numerous films, and also directed several acclaimed feature films including ‘Maachis’, ‘Aandhi’, ‘Mausam’, ‘Khushboo’, ‘Parichay’ and ‘Koshish’.

He has earlier received the Sahitya Akademi Award for Urdu in 2002, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2013, the Padma Bhushan in 2004, and at least five National Film awards for his works.

Rambhadracharya, the founder and head of Tulsi Peeth in Chitrakoot, is a renowned Hindu spiritual leader, educator and writer of hundreds of books.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had lauded Swami Rambhadracharya’s contributions while addressing the Tulsi Peeth Programme in Chitrakoot last month.

“Rambhadracharya ji is such a sage of our country, on whose knowledge base alone many universities of the world can conduct their studies and research. Despite not having eyesight since childhood, your eyes of wisdom are so developed that you have memorized all the Vedas. You have written hundreds of books. ‘Prasthanatrayi’ on Indian knowledge and philosophy is considered difficult even for great scholars. Jagadguru ji has also written his commentary in modern language,” PM Modi said.

“This level of knowledge, this level of intelligence is not limited to personal level. This intelligence is the heritage of the entire nation. And that is why, our government honoured Swamiji with Padma Vibhushan in 2015,” he added.

The Jnanpith Award was instituted in 1961 by Bharatiya Jnanpith. Along with the Sahitya Akademi Awards, it is the foremost prize for Indian literature.