The Sahitya Akademi Award is an annual award, given by the Sahitya Akademi (India's National Academy of Letters), to writers in 24 Indian languages. The award was instituted and first awarded in 1955. , the award carries a monetary reward of , a shawl and a copper-plaque. The award for Sanskrit was first given in 1956. The first five awards went to works in other languages, dealing with Sanskrit culture. Since 1967, the award has been given only to works in Sanskrit. The list of Sanskrit language writers who have won the award is given below.
(No Awards in 1955, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1962, 1965, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1975, 1976, 1978 and 2014.)
The Sahitya Akademi also awards a "Bal Sahitya Puraskar", for children's literature. Winners of this award for Sanskrit include:
Books published by an author of the age of 35 and below.
The Sahitya Akademi introduced the Bhasha Samman in 1996 to honor writers, scholars, and translators who have significantly contributed to unrecognized languages in India. It also acknowledges work in classical and medieval literature. Recipients receive a plaque and a monetary prize of â¹1,00,000.
Following is the list of recipients of Sahitya Akademi translation prizes for their works written in Sanskrit. The award, as of 2019, consisted of 50,000.