Jnanpith Award Winners - Bengali 5.6.1998

The stamp on this FDC honours three writers who were awarded the Jnanpith Award for their work in the Bengali language.

Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay (23 July 1898 – 14 September 1971) was one of the leading Bengali novelists. He wrote 65 novels, 53-story-books, 12 plays, 4 essay-books, 4 autobiographies and 2 travel stories. A notable man of wisdom, he was awarded Rabindra Puraskar, Sahitya Akademi Award, Jnanpith Award in 1966, and the Padma Bhushan.

Bishnu Dey was a prominent Bengali poet, prose writer, translator, academic and art critic in the era of modernism, post-modernism. Starting off as a symbologist, he won recognition for the musical quality of his poems, and forms the post-Tagore generation of Bengali poets, like Buddhadeb Basu and Samar Sen, which marked the advent of "New Poetry" in Bengali literature, deeply influenced by Marxist ideology. he was awarded  Jnanpith Award in 1971.

Ashapoorna Devi also Ashapurna Debi or Asha Purna Devi, was a prominent Bengali novelist and poet. She was born on 8 January 1909. She has been widely honoured with a number of prizes and awards. She was awarded1976 Jnanpith Award and the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 1976; D.Litt by the Universities of Jabalpur, Rabindra Bharati, Burdwan and Jadavpur.Vishwa Bharati University honoured her with Deshikottama in 1989. For her contribution as a novelist and short story writer, the Sahitya Akademi conferred its highest honour, the Fellowship, in 1994. She died in 1995.