Bharatiya Jnanpith a literary and research organization, was founded on February 18, 1944 by Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain

Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain

Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain was among the most prominent Jains of the 20th century. He was a leading industrialist and philanthropist.He was born at Najibabad in Uttar Pradesh in the famous Sahu Jain family in 1911. His grandfather was Sahu Salekh Chand Jain who was involved in religious and charitable...

 of the Sahu Jain

Sahu Jain

Sahu Jain is an important industrial family of India. They own the Times Group and its parent company, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd.. They are of Agrawal Jain community....

 family and his wife Rama Jain to undertake systematic research and publication of Sanskrit

Sanskrit

Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...

, Prakrit

Prakrit

Prakrit is the name for a group of Middle Indic, Indo-Aryan languages, derived from Old Indic dialects. The word itself has a flexible definition, being defined sometimes as, "original, natural, artless, normal, ordinary, usual", or "vernacular", in contrast to the literary and religious...

, Pali

Páli

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 and Apabhramsha

Apabhramsha

Apabhraṃśa is a term used by Sanskrit grammarians since Patañjali to refer to dialects that deviate from the norm of Sanskrit grammar. The term in Sanskrit literally means "corrupt" or "non-grammatical language". It is used as a cover term for the dialects forming the transition between the late...

 texts.

Its research and publication programme started with the publication of the Dhavala texts. A Jain temple at Moodabidri

Moodabidri

Moodabidri , is a small town 37 km northeast of the Dakshina Kannada district headquarters, Mangalore, in Karnataka, India....

 in Karnataka

Karnataka

Karnataka , the land of the Kannadigas, is a state in South West India. It was created on 1 November 1956, with the passing of the States Reorganisation Act and this day is annually celebrated as Karnataka Rajyotsava...

, southern India, had stored for centuries its manuscript of palm-leaves. It was a 9th century commentary in Prakrit and Sanskrit, of a 2nd century AD work, Satkhandagama

Satkhandagama

Satkhandāgama , literally the "Scripture in Six Parts", is the foremost and oldest Digambara Jain sacred text. According to Digambara tradition, the original canonical scriptures of the Jains were totally lost within a few centuries of Nirvana of Lord Mahavira...

, in Prakrit on the Jain doctrine of karma.

It has published two series of texts:

1. Moortidevi Granthmala
2. Lokodaya Granthmala

It annually publishes hundreds of books in Hindi (both original and translated works) and other languages, and also presents India's highest literary awards, the Jnanpith Award

Jnanpith Award

The Jnanpith Award is a literary award in India. Along with the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship, it is one of the two most prestigious literary honours in the country...

s and the Moortidevi Award, besides awards for upcoming writers.