Noted Marathi poet Vinda Karandikar has been chosen for the Jnanpith award for 2003.
Announcing the country's highest literary honour in New Delhi on Sunday, the selection board said Karandikar was "perhaps the most experimental and most comprehensive of all modern Marathi poets".
The decision to honour the 87-year-old towering figure of modern Marathi poetry was taken at Saturday's meeting of the Jnanpith selection board chaired by noted scholar LM Singhvi.
Apart from citation plaque, the award carries an amount of Rs 5,00,000.
"As an essayist, critic and translator also he was very significant achievement to his credit. A long creative life, full of worldly struggles and ceaseless in its search for aesthetic perfection is at the back of his achievement," the Bharatiya Jnanpith said in a statement.
Karandikar has earlier received many prestigious awards including the Soviet Land Nehru Literary award and senior fellowship of Sahitya Akademi.
Other members in the selection board included eminent writers Mahasweta Devi, CT Indira, Sitanshu Yashaschandra, Ramakanta Rath, Gopi Chand Narang, Ashok Vajpaye and Prabhakar Shrotriya.