| Sahitya Akademi Award for Tamil | |
|---|---|
| Award for contributions to Tamil literature | |
 | |
| Awarded for | Literary award in India |
| Sponsored by | Sahitya Akademi, Government of India |
| Reward(s) | ₹1 lakh (US$1,200) |
| First awarded | 1955 |
| Last awarded | 2023 |
| Highlights | |
| Total awarded | 65 |
| First winner | R. P. Sethu Pillai |
| Most Recent winner | Rajasekaran (Devibharathi) |
| Website | Official website |
.svg){kind=small}
The Sahitya Akademi Award is the second-highest literary honor in India. The Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, aims at "promoting Indian literature throughout the world". The Akademi annually confers on writers of "the most outstanding books of literary merit". The awards are given for works published in any of the 24 languages recognised by the akademi.[1] Instituted in 1954, the award recognizes and promotes excellence in writing and acknowledge new trends. The annual process of selecting awardees runs for the preceding twelve months. As of 2015, the award comprises a plaque and a cash prize of ₹1 lakh (US$1,200).[1][2]
The inaugural edition of the award recognised works in twelve languages – Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. In Tamil, the first recipient of the award was R. P. Sethu Pillai, who was honored for his collection of essays entitled Tamil Inbam in 1955. Posthumous recipients of the award include Kalki Krishnamurthy (1956), Bharathidasan (1969), Ku. Alagirisami (1970), Aadhavan Sundaram (1987), C. S. Chellappa (2001), Melaanmai Ponnuchamy (2008). As of 2022[update], the award has been presented to 64 writers.
- ^ a b "Akademi Awards". Sahitya Akademi. Archived from the original on 25 September 2010. Retrieved 23 December 2013.
- ^ "Poets dominate 2009 Sahitya Akademi Awards". The Hindu. 24 December 2009. Archived from the original on 27 December 2009. Retrieved 3 June 2016.