# List of Arjuna Award recipients (1961–1969)

The Arjuna Award, officially known as the Arjuna Awards for Outstanding Performance in Sports and Games, is a sports honour of the Republic of India. It is awarded annually by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. Before the introduction of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna in 1991–1992, the Arjuna Award was the highest sporting honour of India. As of 2020, the award comprises "a bronze statuette of Arjuna, certificate, ceremonial dress, and a cash prize of ₹15 lakh (US$17,000)."

## Name

The award is named after Arjuna, a character from the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata of ancient India. He is one of the Pandavas, depicted as a skilled archer winning the hand of Draupadi in marriage. In the Kurukshetra War, Lord Krishna becomes his charioteer teaching him the sacred knowledge of Gita. In Hindu mythology, he has been seen as a symbol of hard work, dedication and concentration.

## History

Instituted in 1961 to honour the outstanding sportspersons of the country, the award over the years has undergone a number of expansions, reviews, and rationalizations. The award was expanded to include all the recognised disciplines in 1977, has introduced indigenous games and physically handicapped categories in 1995 and introduced a lifetime contribution category in 1995 leading to creation of a separate Dhyan Chand Award in 2002. The latest revision in 2018 stipulates that the award is given only to the disciplines included in the events like Olympic Games, Paralympic Games, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, World Championship and World Cup along with Cricket, Indigenous Games, and Parasports. It also recommends giving only fifteen awards in a year, relaxing in case of excellent performance in major multi-sport events, team sports, across gender and giving away of at least one award to the physically challenged category.
The nominations for the award are received from all government-recognised National Sports Federations, the Indian Olympic Association, the Sports Authority of India (SAI), the Sports Promotion and Control Boards, the state and the union territory governments and the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Arjuna, Dhyan Chand and Dronacharya awardees of the previous years. The recipients are selected by a committee constituted by the Ministry and are honoured for their "good performance in the field of sports over a period of four years" at international level and for having shown "qualities of leadership, sportsmanship and a sense of discipline".

## Recipients

A total of 95 individual awards were presented in the 1960s: twenty in 1961, followed by nine in 1962, seven in 1963, seven in 1964, seven in 1965, thirteen in 1966, fifteen in 1967, seven in 1968, and ten in 1969. Individuals from twenty-one different sports were awarded, which include thirteen from hockey, twelve from athletics, eight from football, seven each from cricket and wrestling, six from weightlifting, five each from badminton and table tennis, four each from basketball, boxing, lawn tennis and swimming, three each from golf, polo and shooting, two each from squash and volleyball, and one each from billiards & snooker, chess and gymnastics. In an unusual move, the first and only team award to date was presented to the entire team of twenty mountaineers in 1965 representing the successful Indian Everest expedition of 1965.
Amongst the notable winners was Manuel Aaron, awarded in 1961. He was India's first chess International Master (IM). He obtained the title in 1961 and India did not produce a second IM for the next seventeen years. He dominated the chess in India, becoming national champion nine times between 1959 and 1981. Hockey players Charanjit Singh and Shankar Lakshman were awarded in 1963 and 1964 respectively. The former was the captain of the gold winning Indian men's hockey team at 1964 Summer Olympics at Tokyo. The latter was the goalkeeper of the Indian team in the 1956, 1960 and 1964 Olympics, helping the team win two gold medals and one silver medal.

## List of recipients

List of Arjuna award recipients, showing the year, sport, and gender :
| Year | Recipient | Sport | Gender |
| 1961 | Manuel Aaron | Chess | Male |
| 1961 | P. K. Banerjee | Football | Male |
| 1961 | Udey Chand | Wrestling | Male |
| 1961 | Buddy D'Souza | Boxing | Male |
| 1961 | Salim Durani | Cricket | Male |
| 1961 | A. N. Ghosh | Weightlifting | Male |
| 1961 | K. S. Jain | Squash | Male |
| 1961 | Ramanathan Krishnan | Lawn Tennis | Male |
| 1961 | Sham Lal | Gymnastics | Male |
| 1961 | Anne Lumsden | Hockey | Female |
| 1961 | Nandu M. Natekar | Badminton | Male |
| 1961 | A. Palanisamy | Volleyball | Male |
| 1961 | Bajarangi Prasad | Swimming | Male |
| 1961 | Gurbachan Singh Randhawa | Athletics | Male |
| 1961 | P. G. Sethi | Golf | Male |
| 1961 | Karni Singh | Shooting | Male |
| 1961 | Prem Singh | Polo | Male |
| 1961 | Prithipal Singh | Hockey | Male |
| 1961 | Sarbjit Singh | Basketball | Male |
| 1961 | J. C. Vohra | Table Tennis | Male |
| 1962 | Tulsidas Balaram | Football | Male |
| 1962 | Nripjit Singh Bedi | Volleyball | Male |
| 1962 | Laxmi Kanta Das | Weightlifting | Male |
| 1962 | Wilson Jones | Billiards | Male |
| 1962 | Naresh Kumar | Lawn Tennis | Male |
| 1962 | Padam Badadur Mal | Boxing | Male |
| 1962 | Meena Shah | Badminton | Female |
| 1962 | Malwa Singh | Wrestling | Male |
| 1962 | Tarlok Singh | Athletics | Male |
| 1963 | Ganpat Andalkar | Wrestling | Male |
| 1963 | Stephie D'Souza | Athletics | Female |
| 1963 | Chuni Goswami | Football | Male |
| 1963 | Ashok Malik | Golf | Male |
| 1963 | Kamineni Eswara Rao | Weightlifting | Male |
| 1963 | Charanjit Singh | Hockey | Male |
| 1963 | Kishen Singh | Polo | Male |
| 1964 | Gautam R. Diwan | Table Tennis | Male |
| 1964 | Shankar Lakshman | Hockey | Male |
| 1964 | Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi | Cricket | Male |
| 1964 | Bishambar Singh | Wrestling | Male |
| 1964 | Hanut Singh | Polo | Male |
| 1964 | Jarnail Singh | Football | Male |
| 1964 | Makhan Singh | Athletics | Male |
| 1965 | Balbir Singh Bhatia | Weightlifting | Male |
| 1965 | Elvera Britto | Hockey | Female |
| 1965 | Arun Ghosh | Football | Male |
| 1965 | Dinesh Khanna | Badminton | Male |
| 1965 | Vijay Manjrekar | Cricket | Male |
| 1965 | Kenneth Powell | Athletics | Male |
| 1965 | Udham Singh | Hockey | Male |
| 1966 | Bhogeswar Baruah | Athletics | Male |
| 1966 | Chandu Borde | Cricket | Male |
| 1966 | Usha Sunder Das | Table Tennis | Female |
| 1966 | Rima Dutta | Swimming | Female |
| 1966 | Mohon Lal Ghosh | Weightlifting | Male |
| 1966 | Yousuf Khan | Football | Male |
| 1966 | Jaidip Mukerjea | Lawn Tennis | Male |
| 1966 | John Peter | Hockey | Male |
| 1966 | Sunita Puri | Hockey | Female |
| 1966 | Ajmer Singh | Athletics | Male |
| 1966 | Bhim Singh | Wrestling | Male |
| 1966 | Gurbaksh Singh | Hockey | Male |
| 1966 | Hawa Singh | Boxing | Male |
| 1967 | Savarimuthu John Cabriel | Weightlifting | Male |
| 1967 | Suresh Goel | Badminton | Male |
| 1967 | Faruk R. Khodaiji | Table Tennis | Male |
| 1967 | Mohinder Lal | Hockey | Male |
| 1967 | Premjit Lall | Lawn Tennis | Male |
| 1967 | Raj Kumar Pitambar | Golf | Male |
| 1967 | Khushi Ram | Basketball | Male |
| 1967 | Arun Shaw | Swimming | Male |
| 1967 | Bhim Singh | Athletics | Male |
| 1967 | Harbinder Singh | Hockey | Male |
| 1967 | Jagjit Singh | Hockey | Male |
| 1967 | Mukhtiar Singh | Wrestling | Male |
| 1967 | Praveen Kumar Sobti | Athletics | Male |
| 1967 | Peter Thangaraj | Football | Male |
| 1967 | Ajit Wadekar | Cricket | Male |
| 1968 | Balbir Singh Kular | Hockey | Male |
| 1968 | Rajyashree Kumari | Shooting | Female |
| 1968 | E. A. S. Prasanna | Cricket | Male |
| 1968 | Gurdial Singh | Basketball | Male |
| 1968 | Joginder Singh | Athletics | Male |
| 1968 | Dennis Swamy | Boxing | Male |
| 1968 | Manjit Walia | Athletics | Female |
| 1969 | Mir Khasim Ali | Table Tennis | Male |
| 1969 | Bishan Singh Bedi | Cricket | Male |
| 1969 | Hari Dutt | Basketball | Male |
| 1969 | Dipu Ghosh | Badminton | Male |
| 1969 | Bhuvaneshwari Kumari | Shooting | Female |
| 1969 | Baidyanath Nath | Swimming | Male |
| 1969 | Anil Nayar | Squash | Male |
| 1969 | Chandgi Ram | Wrestling | Male |
| 1969 | Harnek Singh | Athletics | Male |
| 1969 | Inder Singh | Football | Male |
An Indian postage stamp (pictured) commemorated Indian's first successful Everest Expedition in 1965 (awarded team award in 1965). Avtar Singh Cheema and Nawang Gombu as seen here reached the summit in the morning of 19 May 1965. India in a single expedition placed nine men on the top of Everest, an unbroken record for the next 17 years.
List of Arjuna team award recipients, showing the year, event, and gender :
| Year | Recipient | Event | Gender |
| 1965 | H. P. S. Ahluwalia | 1965 Indian Everest Expedition | Male |
| 1965 | Harsh Vardhan Bahuguna | 1965 Indian Everest Expedition | Male |
| 1965 | C. Balakrishnan | 1965 Indian Everest Expedition | Male |
| 1965 | G. S. Bhangu | 1965 Indian Everest Expedition | Male |
| 1965 | A. K. Chakravarty | 1965 Indian Everest Expedition | Male |
| 1965 | Avtar Singh Cheema | 1965 Indian Everest Expedition | Male |
| 1965 | Nawang Gombu | 1965 Indian Everest Expedition | Male |
| 1965 | Sonam Gyatso | 1965 Indian Everest Expedition | Male |
| 1965 | J. C. Joshi | 1965 Indian Everest Expedition | Male |
| 1965 | Ang Kami | 1965 Indian Everest Expedition | Male |
| 1965 | Mohan Singh Kohli | 1965 Indian Everest Expedition | Male |
| 1965 | Narendra Kumar | 1965 Indian Everest Expedition | Male |
| 1965 | Mulkh Raj | 1965 Indian Everest Expedition | Male |
| 1965 | B. N. Rana | 1965 Indian Everest Expedition | Male |
| 1965 | Harish Chandra Singh Rawat | 1965 Indian Everest Expedition | Male |
| 1965 | B. P. Singh | 1965 Indian Everest Expedition | Male |
| 1965 | Gurdial Singh | 1965 Indian Everest Expedition | Male |
| 1965 | D. V. Telang | 1965 Indian Everest Expedition | Male |
| 1965 | Chandra Prakash Vohra | 1965 Indian Everest Expedition | Male |
| 1965 | Sonam Wangyal | 1965 Indian Everest Expedition | Male |

## Explanatory notes

* ↑ The cash prize was introduced in the year 1977–1978 as a scholarship of ₹200 (US$2.30) a month for 2 years. It was revised to one time cash prize of ₹5,000 (US$58) in 1986, to ₹20,000 (US$230) in 1987, to ₹50,000 (US$580) in 1993, to ₹1.5 lakh (US$1,700) in 1998, to ₹3 lakh (US$3,500) in 2001, to ₹5 lakh (US$5,800) in 2009, and to ₹15 lakh (US$17,000) in 2020.
* ↑ Indian style wrestling