List of award recipients , showing the year , and language ( s ) Year Recipient ( s ) Language ( s ) Refs. / Notes 1965 ( 1st ) Kurup , G. Sankara G. Sankara Kurup Malayalam ! Malayalam 1966 ( 2nd ) Bandyopadhyay , Tarasankar Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay Bengali ! Bengali 1967 ( 3rd ) † Joshi , Umashankar Umashankar Joshi Gujarati ! Gujarati 1967 ( 3rd ) † Puttappa ' Kuvempu ' , Kuppali Venkatappa Kuppali Venkatappa Puttappa ' Kuvempu ' Kannada ! Kannada 1968 ( 4th ) Pant , Sumitranandan Sumitranandan Pant Hindi ! Hindi 1969 ( 5th ) Gorakhpuri , Firaq Firaq Gorakhpuri Urdu ! Urdu 1970 ( 6th ) Satyanarayana , Viswanatha Viswanatha Satyanarayana Telugu ! Telugu 1971 ( 7th ) Dey , Bishnu Bishnu Dey Bengali ! Bengali 1972 ( 8th ) Singh ' Dinkar ' , Ramdhari Ramdhari Singh ' Dinkar ' Hindi ! Hindi 1973 ( 9th ) † Bendre , D.R. D.R. Bendre Kannada ! Kannada 1973 ( 9th ) † Mohanty , Gopinath Gopinath Mohanty Odia ! Odia ( 10th ) Khandekar , Vishnu Sakharam Vishnu Sakharam Khandekar Marathi ! Marathi ( 11th ) , Akilan Akilan Tamil ! Tamil 1976 ( 12th ) Devi , Ashapoorna Ashapoorna Devi Bengali ! Bengali 1977 ( 13rd ) Karanth , K. Shivaram K. Shivaram Karanth Kannada ! Kannada 1978 ( 14th ) Vatsyayan , Sachchidananda Sachchidananda Vatsyayan Hindi ! Hindi 1979 ( 15th ) Bhattacharya , Birendra Kumar Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya Assamese ! Assamese 1980 ( 16th ) Pottekkatt , S.K. S.K. Pottekkatt Malayalam ! Malayalam 1981 ( 17th ) Pritam , Amrita Amrita Pritam Punjabi ! Punjabi 1982 ( 18th ) Varma , Mahadevi Mahadevi Varma Hindi ! Hindi ( 19th ) Iyengar , Masti Venkatesha Masti Venkatesha Iyengar Kannada ! Kannada 1984 ( 20th ) Pillai , Thakazhi Sivasankara Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai Malayalam ! Malayalam 1985 ( 21st ) Patel , Pannalal Pannalal Patel Gujarati ! Gujarati 1986 ( 22nd ) Routray , Sachidananda Sachidananda Routray Odia ! Odia ( 23rd ) Shirwadkar ' Kusumagraj ' , Vishnu Vaman Vishnu Vaman Shirwadkar ' Kusumagraj ' Marathi ! Marathi ( 24th ) Reddy , C. Narayana C. Narayana Reddy Telugu ! Telugu ( 25th ) Hyder , Qurratulain Qurratulain Hyder Urdu ! Urdu ( 26th ) Gokak , Vinayaka Krishna Vinayaka Krishna Gokak Kannada ! Kannada 1991 ( 27th ) Mukhopadhyay , Subhash Subhash Mukhopadhyay Bengali ! Bengali ( 28th ) Mehta , Naresh Naresh Mehta Hindi ! Hindi ( 29th ) Mahapatra , Sitakant Sitakant Mahapatra Odia ! Odia ( 30th ) Ananthamurthy , U.R. U.R. Ananthamurthy Kannada ! Kannada 1995 ( 31st ) Nair , M.T. Vasudevan M.T. Vasudevan Nair Malayalam ! Malayalam ( 32nd ) Devi , Mahasweta Mahasweta Devi Bengali ! Bengali ( 33rd ) Jafri , Ali Sardar Ali Sardar Jafri Urdu ! Urdu 1998 ( 34th ) Karnad , Girish Girish Karnad Kannada ! Kannada 1999 ( 35th ) † Verma , Nirmal Nirmal Verma Hindi ! Hindi 1999 ( 35th ) † Singh , Gurdial Gurdial Singh Punjabi ! Punjabi 2000 ( 36th ) Goswami , Mamoni Raisom Mamoni Raisom Goswami Assamese ! Assamese ( 37th ) Shah , Rajendra Rajendra Shah Gujarati ! Gujarati 2002 ( 38th ) Jayakanthan , Jayakanthan Tamil ! Tamil 2003 ( 39th ) Karandikar , Vinda Vinda Karandikar Marathi ! Marathi ( 40th ) Rahi , Rehman Rehman Rahi Kashmiri ! Kashmiri 2005 ( 41st ) Narayan , Kunwar Kunwar Narayan Hindi ! Hindi 2006 ( 42nd ) † Kelekar , Ravindra Ravindra Kelekar Konkani ! Konkani 2006 ( 42nd ) † Shastri , Satya Vrat Satya Vrat Shastri Sanskrit ! Sanskrit 2007 ( 43rd ) Kurup , O.N.V. O.N.V. Kurup Malayalam ! Malayalam 2008 ( 44th ) Khan ' Shahryar ' , Akhlaq Mohammed Akhlaq Mohammed Khan ' Shahryar ' Urdu ! Urdu 2009 ( 45th ) † Amarkant , Amarkant Hindi ! Hindi 2009 ( 45th ) † Sukla , Sri Lal Sri Lal Sukla Hindi ! Hindi ( 46th ) Kambara , Chandrashekhara Chandrashekhara Kambara Kannada ! Kannada 2011 ( 47th ) Ray , Pratibha Pratibha Ray Odia ! Odia 2012 ( 48th ) Bharadhwaja , Ravuri Ravuri Bharadhwaja Telugu ! Telugu 2013 ( 49th ) Singh , Kedarnath Kedarnath Singh Hindi ! Hindi 2014 ( 50th ) Nemade , Bhalchandra Bhalchandra Nemade Marathi ! Marathi 2015 ( 51st ) Chaudhari , Raghuveer Raghuveer Chaudhari Gujarati ! Gujarati 2016 ( 52nd ) Ghosh , Shankha Shankha Ghosh Bengali ! Bengali 2017 ( 53rd ) Sobti , Krishna Krishna Sobti Hindi ! Hindi

Question: the recipient of first jnanpith award was an author which language
Answer: Malayalam