Sangeet Natak Akademi Award

Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (IAST: Saṅgīta Nāṭaka Akādamī Puraskāra), also known as the Akademi Puraskar, is an award given by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's National Academy of Music, Dance & Drama. It is the highest Indian recognition given to people in the field of performing arts.

In 2003, the award consisted of Rs. 50,000, a citation, an angavastram (a shawl), and a tamrapatra (a brass plaque). Since 2009, the cash prize has been increased to ₹1,00,000. The awards are given in the categories of music, dance, theatre, other traditional arts and puppetry, and for contribution/scholarship in performing arts.

Award recipients
The recipients of the Sangeet Natak Akademi award in various categories of performing arts have been listed below:

Vocal

 * 1952 – Mushtaq Hussain Khan
 * 1953 – Kesarbai Kerkar
 * 1954 – Rajab Ali Khan
 * 1955 – Anant Manohar Joshi
 * 1956 – Rajabhaiyya Poonchhwale
 * 1957 – Rasoolan Bai
 * 1958 – Ganesh Ramachandra Behere
 * 1959 – Krishnarao Shankar Pandit
 * 1960 – Altaf Hussain Khan
 * 1961 – Y. S. Mirashi Buwa
 * 1962 – Bade Ghulam Ali Khan
 * 1963 – Omkarnath Thakur
 * 1964 – Rahimuddin Khan Dagar
 * 1965 – Hirabai Barodekar
 * 1966 – Siddheswari Devi
 * 1967 – Amir Khan
 * 1968 – Mogubai Kurdikar
 * 1969 – Ramchatur Mallick
 * 1970 – Nisar Hussain Khan
 * 1971 – Mallikarjun Mansur
 * 1972 – Begum Akhtar
 * 1973 – Gangubai Hangal
 * 1974 – Kumar Gandharva
 * 1975 – Bhimsen Joshi
 * 1975-76 Gavri Devi (Vocal) (Jodhpur, Rajasthan)
 * 1976 – Narayanrao Vyas
 * 1977 – Girija Devi
 * 1978 – Khadim Hussain Khan
 * 1979 – Sarachchandra Arolkar
 * 1980 – Nivruttibua Sarnaik
 * 1981 – Basavaraj Rajguru
 * 1982 – Vasantrao Deshpande
 * 1983 – Mahadev Prasad Mishra
 * 1984 – Sharafat Hussain Khan
 * 1985 – Kishori Amonkar, Aminuddin Dagar
 * 1986 – Gavri Devi (Vocal) (Jodhpur, Rajasthan)
 * 1986 – Asgari Bai, Firoz Dastur, Manik Varma
 * 1987 – C. R. Vyas, Shobha Gurtu, Pandit Jasraj
 * 1988 – Padmavati Gokhale Shaligram
 * 1989 – Jitendra Abhisheki
 * 1990 – K. G. Ginde, Dhondutai Kulkarni
 * 1991 – N. Zahiruddin Dagar, Prabha Atre
 * 1992 – Ramarao V. Naik, Shiv Kumar Shukla
 * 1993 – Bala Saheb Poochwale, Rahim Fahimuddin Dagar
 * 1994 – Sulochana Brahaspati, Zia Fariddudin Dagar
 * 1995 – A. Kanan
 * 1996 – Dinkar Kaikini, Hafeez Ahmed Khan
 * 1997 – L. K. Pandit
 * 1998 – Puttaraj Gawaigalu, Parveen Sultana, Rajan and Sajan Mishra
 * 1999–2000 – Ajoy Chakraborty, Rita Ganguly, Malabika Kanan
 * 2001 – Abhay Narayan Mallick, Sangameshwar Gurav, Malini Rajurkar
 * 2002 – Sushila Rani Patel, Sharayu Kalekar
 * 2003 – Ghulam Mustafa Khan, Yeshwant Balkrishna Joshi
 * 2004 – Balwant Rai Bhatt, Tejpal Singh and Surinder Singh
 * 2005 – S. C. R. Bhat, Ramashreya Jha
 * 2006 – Vijay Kumar Kichlu, Rashid Khan
 * 2007 – Vidyadhar Vyas, Govardhan Mishra
 * 2008 – Ulhas Kashalkar, M.R. Gautam
 * 2009 – Abdul Rashid Khan, Vasundhara Komkali
 * 2010 – Chhannulal Mishra, Yashpaul
 * 2011 – Shruti Sadolikar, Pandit Venkatesh Kumar
 * 2012 – Shankar Lal Mishra, Rajashekhar Mansur, Ajay Pohankar
 * 2013 – Ritwik Sanyal, Veena Sahasrabuddhe
 * 2014 – Ashwini Bhide-Deshpande, Iqbal Ahmad Khan, Nathrao Neralkar
 * 2015 – Mashkoor Ali Khan
 * 2016 – Prabhakar Karekar
 * 2017 – Lalith J. Rao, Umakant and Ramakant Gundecha - Gundecha Brothers
 * 2018 – Mani Prasad, Madhup Mudgal
 * 2019 – Vinayak Torvi, Prem Kumar Mallick
 * 2020 – Sumitra Guha, Arati Ankalikar-Tikekar
 * 2021 – Uday Bhawalkar, Subhra Guha
 * 2022 – Devaki Pandit, Harvinder Singh
 * 2023 – Kalapini Komkali, Vinod Kumar Dwivedi

Been/Rudra Veena/Vichitra Veena

 * 1969 – Dabir Khan
 * 1977 – Asad Ali Khan
 * 1981 – Zia Mohiuddin Dagar
 * 1994 – Pandit Gopal Krishan
 * 2012 – Bahauddin Dagar

Flute

 * 1983 – Pt. Hari Prasad Chaurasiya
 * 1986 – Devendra Murdeshwar
 * 1994 – Raghunath Seth
 * 2010 – Nityanand Haldipur
 * 2014 – Ronu Majumdar
 * 2017 – Pt. Rajendra Prasanna
 * 2019 – Chetan Joshi

Guitar

 * 2005 – Brij Bhushan Kabra

Harmonium

 * 2000 – Appa Jalgaonkar
 * 2005 – Tulsidas Vasant Borkar
 * 2022 – Dharamnath Mishra

Pakhavaj

 * 1955 – Govind Rao Burhanpurkar
 * 1965 – Sakharam Tavde
 * 1967 – Ayodhya Prasad
 * 1978 – Purushottam Das
 * 1988 – Ramshankardas Pagaldas
 * 1991 – Chatrapati Singh
 * 1993 – Gopaldas Panse
 * 1995 – Ram Ashish Pathak
 * 2003 – Bhavani Shankar
 * 2011 – Totaram Sharma
 * 2020 – Dal Chand Sharma

Santoor

 * 1986 – Shivkumar Sharma
 * 1993 – Bhajan Sopori
 * 2018 – Tarun Bhattacharya

Sarangi

 * 1966 – Shakoor Khan
 * 1975 – Ram Narayan
 * 1976 – Gopal Misra
 * 1986 – Sabri Khan
 * 1988 – Hanuman Prasad Mishra
 * 1990 – Abdul Lateef Khan
 * 1992 – Sultan Khan
 * 1996 – Inderlal Dhandra, Ramchandra Mishra
 * 2008 – Ramesh Mishra
 * 2013 – Dhruba Ghosh
 * 2023 – Moinuddin Khan

Sarod

 * 1952 – Allauddin Khan
 * 1953 – Hafiz Ali Khan
 * 1963 – Ali Akbar Khan
 * 1971 – Radhika Mohan Maitra
 * 1986 – Sharan Rani Backliwal
 * 1988 – Zarin Sharma
 * 1989 – Amjad Ali Khan
 * 1993 – Buddhadev Das Gupta
 * 1999–2000 – Rajeev Taranath
 * 2004 – Aashish Khan
 * 2018 – Tejendra Majumdar
 * 2022 – Basant Kabra

Shehnai

 * 1956 – Ustad Bismillah Khan
 * 1985 – Ali Hussain Khan
 * 1989 – Pt. Anant Lal
 * 1996 – Pt. Raghunath Prasanna
 * 2008 – Krishna Ram Chaudhary
 * 2009 – Ali Ahmad Hussain
 * 2017 – Rajendra Prasanna

Sitar

 * 1958 – Yusuf Ali
 * 1960 – Wahid Khan
 * 1962 – Pt. Ravi Shankar
 * 1968 – Mushtaq Ali Khan
 * 1974 – Nikhil Banerjee
 * 1987 – Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan, Imrat Khan (also Surbahar)
 * 1989 – Balaram Pathak
 * 1992 – Uma Shankar Mishra
 * 1994 – Shamim Ahmed Khan
 * 1996 – Debu Chaudhuri
 * 2001 – Manilal Nag
 * 2003 – Arvind Parikh
 * 2006 – Shahid Parvez
 * 2010 – Budhaditya Mukherjee
 * 2015 – Karthick Kumar
 * 2019 – Manju Mehta
 * 2020 – Kushal Das
 * 2023 –Harvinder Kumar Sharma

Surbahar

 * 1991 – Annapurna Devi
 * 2011 – Pushparaj Koshti

Tabla

 * 1954 – Ustad Ahmed Jan Thirakwa
 * 1959 – Ustad Jahangir Khan
 * 1961 – Pt. Kanthe Maharaj
 * 1970 – Masit Khan
 * 1976 – Karamatulla Khan
 * 1979 – Pt. Samta Prasad
 * 1982 – Ustad Alla Rakha
 * 1984 – Pt. Kishan Maharaj
 * 1990 – Ustad Zakir Hussain
 * 1991 – Shaikh Dawood
 * 1997 – Swapan Chaudhuri, Lalji Gokhale
 * 1998 – Pandharinath Gangadhar Nageshkar
 * 1999–2000 – Shankar Ghosh
 * 2001 – Ishwar Lal Mishra
 * 2002 – Suresh B. Gaitonde, Anindo Chatterjee
 * 2004 – Pt. Suresh Talwalkar
 * 2006 – Kumar Bose
 * 2007 – Nandan Mehta
 * 2009 – Lachman Singh Seen
 * 2012 – Sabir Khan (Tabla)
 * 2013 – Hashmat Ali Khan
 * 2014 – Pt. Nayan Ghosh
 * 2016 – Arvind Mulgaonkar
 * 2017 – Pt. Yogesh Samsi
 * 2021 – Ravindra Yavagal

Violin

 * 1972 – Gajananrao Joshi
 * 1980 – V. G. Jog
 * 1990 – N. Rajam
 * 1995 – D. K. Datar
 * 1996 – Annavarapu Rama Swamy
 * 1997 – Sisir Kana Dhar Chowdhury
 * 2007 – Ramoo Prasad Shastri
 * 2016 – Kala Ramnath
 * 2021 – Sangeeta Shankar
 * 2023- H.K Venkatram

Vocal

 * 1952 – Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar
 * 1953 – Semmangudi R. Srinivasa Iyer
 * 1954 – Mysore K. Vasudevacharya
 * 1955 – Maharajapuram Vishwanatha Iyer
 * 1956 – M. S. Subbulakshmi
 * 1957 – Musiri Subramania Iyer
 * 1958 – Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar
 * 1959 – G. N. Balasubramaniam
 * 1960 – Madurai Mani Iyer
 * 1961 – Mudikondan C. Venkatarama Iyer
 * 1962 – D. K. Pattammal
 * 1963 – B. Devendrappa
 * 1964 – Chittoor S. Subramanyam
 * 1965 – T. Brinda
 * 1966 – Madurai Srirangam Iyengar
 * 1967 – C. Venkata Rao
 * 1968 – Alathur Srinivasa Iyer
 * 1969 – Dandapani Desikar
 * 1970 – M. L. Vasanthakumari
 * 1971 – N. Channakeshaviah
 * 1972 – T. Muktha
 * 1973 – B.S. Raja Iyengar
 * 1974 – M. D. Ramanathan
 * 1975 – M. Balamurali Krishna
 * 1976 – K.V.Narayanaswamy
 * 1977 – Sripada Pinakapani
 * 1978 – Madurai S. Somasundaram
 * 1979 – R K Srikanthan
 * 1980 – Seerkhazhi S. Govindarajan
 * 1981 – Radha and Jayalakshmi
 * 1982 – T. M. Thiagarajan
 * 1983 – D. K. Jayaraman
 * 1984 – Maharajapuram V. Santhanam
 * 1985 – Voleti Venkatesvarulu
 * 1986 – B. Rajam Iyer
 * 1986 – Nedunuri Krishnamoorthy
 * 1987 – Madurai N. Krishnan
 * 1987 – Mani Krishnaswami
 * 1988 – Nookala Chinna Satyanarayana
 * 1989 – Titte Krishna Iyengar
 * 1990 – T. V. Sankaranarayanan
 * 1991 – S. Rajam
 * 1992 – K. R. Kumaraswamy Iyer
 * 1993 – Trichy Swaminathan Iyer
 * 1994 – C. S. Krishna Iyer
 * 1995 – R. Vedavalli
 * 1996 – T. K. Govinda Rao
 * 1997 – M. S. Balasubramanya Sarma
 * 2000 – S. R. Janakiraman
 * 2001 – B. V. Raman
 * 2002 – T. R. Subramaniam
 * 2003 – Trichur V. Ramachandran, M. A. Narasimhachar
 * 2004 – Thiruvengadu A. Jayaraman, C. Saroja & C. Lalitha
 * 2005 – S. V. Parthasarrathy, P. S. Narayanaswamy
 * 2006 – D. Pasupathi, Chingleput Ranganathan
 * 2007 – B. Krishnamoorti
 * 2008 – Puranam Purushottama Sastri
 * 2009 – Parassala B Ponnammal
 * 2010 – Suguna Purushothaman, Mysore Nagamani Srinath
 * 2011 – J. Venkataraman
 * 2012 – O. S. Thyagarajan
 * 2013 – Aruna Sairam, D. Seshchari & D. Raghavachari (Hyderabad Brothers)
 * 2014 – Neyveli Santhanagopalan
 * 2015 – R.N. Tharanathan, Suguna Varadachari, R.N. Thiagarajan
 * 2016 – Neela Ramgopal, K. Omanakutty
 * 2017 – M. S. Sheela
 * 2018 – Alamelu Mani, Malladi Suribabu
 * 2019 – Charumathi Ramachandran, Pala C. K. Ramachandran
 * 2020 – R. K. Padmanabha, G. Balakrishna Prasad
 * 2021 – Sudha Ragunathan, Radha Namboodiri
 * 2022 – Maharajapuram Ramachandran, Manda Sudharani
 * 2023 – Bombay Jayashri, Shankar Sastry

Clarionet

 * 1994 – A. K. C. Natarajan

Flute

 * 1954 – Palladam Sanjiva Rao
 * 1961 – T. N. Swaminatha Pillai
 * 1965 – T. R. Mahalingam
 * 1984 – Natesan Ramani
 * 1987 – T. Viswanathan
 * 1989 – Sikkil Sisters - Kunjumani & Neela
 * 1997 – Kesi Narayanaswamy
 * 1999–2000 – T.S Sankaran
 * 2004 – Prapancham Sitaram
 * 2017 – Shashank Subramanyam
 * 2019 – Sikkil Mala Chandrasekar

Ghatam

 * 1988 – Thetakudi Harihara Vinayakram
 * 1995 – Umayalpuram K. Narayanaswamy
 * 2011 – E. M. Subramaniam
 * 2014 – Sukanya Ramgopal

Gottuvadhyam

 * 1958 – Budaloor Krishnamurthy Shastri
 * 2006 – N. Ravikiran

Kanjira

 * 2001 – G. Harishankar

Mandolin

 * 2009 – U. Srinivas

Mridangam

 * 1956 – Palghat Mani Iyer
 * 1975 – C.S. Murugabhupathy
 * 1979 – Kolanka Venkata Raju
 * 1983 – Palghat R. Raghu
 * 1987 – T. K. Murthy
 * 1990 – T. V. Gopalakrishnan
 * 1991 – Vellore G. Ramabhadran
 * 1992 – Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman
 * 1994 – Dandamudi Ram Mohan Rao
 * 1996 – Guruvayur Dorai
 * 1998 – Karaikudi Mani
 * 1999–2000 – V. Kamalakar Rao
 * 2002 – Yella Venkateshwara Rao
 * 2004 – Madras A. Kannan
 * 2006 – Thiruvarur Bakthavathsalam
 * 2008 – Mannargudi Easwaran
 * 2009 – Dandamudi Sumathi Ram Mohan Rao
 * 2010 – Srimushnam V. Raja Rao
 * 2012 – K. V. Prasad
 * 2013 – Trichy Sankaran
 * 2016 – J. Vaidhyanathan
 * 2017 – Tiruvarur Vaidyanathan
 * 2019 – Trivandrum V. Surendran
 * 2020 – Patri Satish Kumar
 * 2023 – Neyveli Narayanan

Nagaswaram

 * 1955 – T. N. Rajarathinam Pillai
 * 1962 – Thiruvengadu Subramania Pillai
 * 1966 – P. S. Veeruswamy Pillai
 * 1972 – T. S. Natarajasundaram Pillai
 * 1976 – Sheik Chinna Moulana
 * 1981 – Namagiripettai Krishnan
 * 1995 – Domada Chittiabbayi
 * 2005 – Ongale N. Rangaiah
 * 2007 – S. R. D. Vaidyanathan
 * 2011 – Seshampatti T Sivalingam
 * 2013 – Thiruvizha Jayashankar
 * 2017 – S.Kasim, S.Babu - Kasim-Babu Brothers

Saxophone

 * 2003 – Kadri Gopalnath

Thavil

 * 1985 – Valangaiman A. Shanmugasundaram Pillai
 * 1988 – Valayapatti A. R. Subramaniam
 * 2001 – Haridwaramangalam A. K. Palanivel
 * 2014 – Thiruvalaputhur T A Kaliyamurthy
 * 2021 – Thanjavur R. Govindarajan
 * 2022 – Vinukonda Subrahmanyam

Veena

 * 1952 – Karaikudi Sambasiva Iyer
 * 1960 – L. Subramanya Sastri
 * 1968 – K. S. Narayanaswamy
 * 1969 – Devakottai A. Narayana Iyengar
 * 1970 – Mysore V. Doreswamy Iyengar
 * 1973 – Emani Sankara Sastry
 * 1977 – S. Balachander
 * 1980 – Thanjavur K.P. Sivanandam
 * 1986 – Rajeswari Padmanabhan
 * 1988 – R. Pichumani Iyer
 * 1990 – Chitti Babu
 * 1992 – M. K. Kalyanakrishna Bhagavathar
 * 1993 – Kalpakam Swaminathan
 * 2001 – R. N. Doreswamy
 * 2002 – E. Gayathri
 * 2007 – Vidya Shankar
 * 2011 – Ayyagari Syamasundaram
 * 2017 – Suma Sudhindra
 * 2021 – D. Balakrishnan
 * 2022 – Jayanthi Kumaresh

Violin

 * 1953 – Dwaram Venkataswamy Naidu
 * 1957 – Tirumakudalu Chowdiah
 * 1959 – Kumbakonam Rajamanickam Pillai
 * 1963 – T. K. Jayarama Iyer
 * 1964 – K. N. Chinnaswamy Iyer
 * 1967 – K. S. Venkataramiah 'Papa'
 * 1971 – Madurai S. Subramanya Iyer
 * 1974 – T. N. Krishnan
 * 1978 – Lalgudi Jayaraman
 * 1982 – M. S. Gopalakrishnan
 * 1986 – M. Chandrasekaran
 * 1988 – Chalakudy N. S. Narayanaswamy
 * 1989 – R. K. Venkatarama Sastry
 * 1991 – Kandadevi S. Alagiriswamy
 * 1993 – Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan
 * 1996 – Annavarapu Ramaswamy
 * 1997 – T. Rukmini
 * 1998 – M. S. Anantharaman
 * 1999–2000 – R. R. Keshavamurthy
 * 2003 – A. Kanyakumari
 * 2005 – V. V. Subrahmanyam
 * 2008 – B. Sasikumar
 * 2010 – Nagai Muralidharan
 * 2012 – Mysore M. Nagaraja
 * 2014 – Dwaram Durga Prasad Rao
 * 2015 – Lalgudi G. J. R. Krishnan
 * 2016 – Mysore Manjunath
 * 2018 – Ganesh and Kumaresh
 * 2020 – M. A. Sundareswaran
 * 2023 – H. K. Venkatram

Creative and experimental music

 * 1973 – Vishnudas Shirali
 * 1976 – Timir Baran Bhattacharya
 * 1978 – Rai Chand Boral
 * 1982 – Vijay Raghav Rao
 * 1983 – Chidambaram S. Jayaraman
 * 1986 – Anil Biswas
 * 1986 – M. B. Srinivasan
 * 1986 – Hemanta Kumar Mukhopadhyay
 * 1988 – Bhaskar Chandavarkar
 * 1989 – Vanraj Bhatia
 * 1990 – L. Subramaniam
 * 1994 – V. Balsara
 * 1995 – Atul Desai
 * 1997 – Satish Bhatia
 * 1998 – Vishwa Mohan Bhatt
 * 2001 – S. Rajaram
 * 2002 – K. P. Udayabhanu
 * 2007 – Khayyam
 * 2012 – Ilaiyaraaja
 * 2020 – Bickram Ghosh
 * 2022 – Purushottam Upadhyay, Osman Mir
 * 2023 – S. Shekhar, Niladri Kumar

Other major traditions of music

 * 2008 – Ningombam Ibobi Singh (Nata Sankirtana, Manipur)
 * 2009 – L. Ibohalmacha Singh (Nata Sankirtana, Manipur)
 * 2010 – M.V. Simhachala Sastry (Harikatha, Tirupathi)
 * 2011 – Gopal Chandra Panda (Odissi Music)
 * 2012 – Bhai Balbir Singh Ragi (Gurbani)
 * 2013 – Bankim Sethi (Odissi Music)
 * 2015 – Hridaynath Mangeshkar (Sugam Sangeet), Prafulla Kar (Sugam Sangeet), Bhupinder Singh (Sugam Sangeet)
 * 2018 – Suresh Wadkar (Sugam Sangeet), Shanti Hiranand (Sugam Sangeet), H. Ashangbi Devi (Nata Sankirtana, Manipur)
 * 2019 – O. S. Arun (Sugam Sangeet), Sharma Bandhu (Sugam Sangeet), D. Uma Maheshwari (Harikatha)
 * 2020 – Anup Jalota (Sugam Sangeet), N. Irabot Singh (Nata Sankirtana)
 * 2021 – Susmita Das (Sugam Sangeet), H. R. Leelavathi (Sugam Sangeet), Kumud Diwan (Thumri)
 * 2022 – Sapam Kullabi Singh (Nata Pung), Sitaram Singh (Sugam Sangeet)
 * 2023 – L. V. Gangadhara Sastry, Sangita Gosain (Oddissi Music)

Bharatanatyam

 * 1955 – T. Balasaraswati
 * 1957 – Rukmini Devi Arundale
 * 1959 – Mylapore Gouri Amma
 * 1962 – R. Muthurathnambal
 * 1965 – P. Chockkalingam Pillai
 * 1966 – Vazhuvoor B. Ramiah Pillai, Swarnasaraswathi
 * 1968 – Kamala
 * 1969 – T. K. Swaminatha Pillai
 * 1970 – Shanta Rao
 * 1971 – T. Chandrakanthamma
 * 1972 – Sikkil Ramaswami Pillai
 * 1973 – Kumbakonam K. Bhanumathi
 * 1974 – K. P. Kittappa Pillai
 * 1976 – M. Muthiah Pillai
 * 1977 – Yamini Krishnamurthy
 * 1979 – Pandanallur Subbaraya Pillai
 * 1981 – Indrani Rahman
 * 1982 – Vyjayanthimala
 * 1983 – Padma Subramanyam
 * 1984 – Subramaniam Sarada, Sudharani Raghupathy
 * 1985 – T. K. Mahalingam Pillai
 * 1986 – Krishnaveni Lakshmanan
 * 1987 – U. S. Krishna Rao and Chandrabhaga Devi, Chitra Viswaswaran
 * 1989 – V. S. Muthuswamy Pillai
 * 1990 – Kalanidhi Narayanan
 * 1991 – Adyar K. Lakshman
 * 1992 – K. J. Sarasa
 * 1993 – Guru Kubernath Tanjorkar(Tanjavurkar), C. V. Chandrasekhar
 * 1994 – V. P. Dhananjayan and Shanta Dhananjayan
 * 1995 – M. K. Saroja, Indira Rajan
 * 1996 – Sarada Hoffman
 * 1997 – Kanaka Srinivasan
 * 1998 – Lakshmi Viswanathan
 * 1999–2000 – K. Kalyanasundaram Pillai, Leela Samson, H. R. Keshava Murthy
 * 2001 – Alarmel Valli, Pratibha Prahlad
 * 2002 – Malavika Sarukkai
 * 2003 – C. K. Balagopalan
 * 2004 – Nirmala Ramachandran
 * 2005 – R. Rhadha
 * 2006 – S. Narmada
 * 2007 – Sucheta Bhide Chapekar
 * 2008 – Saroja Vaidyanathan
 * 2009 – Ananda Shankar Jayant
 * 2011 – Narthaki Nataraj (First Transgender to receive SN Akademi Award)
 * 2012 – Priyadarsini Govind
 * 2013 – Jamuna Krishnan, B. Herabhanathan
 * 2014 – Adayar Janardanan
 * 2015 – Ranganayaki Jayaraman
 * 2016 – Geeta Chandran
 * 2017 – Rama Vaidyanathan
 * 2018 – Radha Sridhar
 * 2019 – Vasundhara Doraswamy
 * 2020 – Meenakshi Chitharanjan
 * 2021 – Jayalakshmi Eshwar
 * 2022 – Manjula Ramaswamy
 * 2023 – Urmila Satyanarayana

Chhau

 * 1963 – Sudhendra Narayan Singh Deo (Seraikella)
 * 1971 – Ananta Charan Sai (Mayurbhanj)
 * 1975 – Krishna Chandra Naik (Mayurbhanj)
 * 1981 – Kedar Nath Sahoo (Seraikella)
 * 1982 – Gambhir Singh Mura (Purulia)
 * 1987 – Madan Mohan Lenka (Mayurbhanj)
 * 1988 – Srihari Nayak (Mayurbhanj)
 * 1990 – Bikram Kumbhakar (Seraikella)
 * 1991 – Chandra Sekhar Bhanj (Mayurbhanj)
 * 2004 – Shashadhar Acharya
 * 2012 – Jai Narayan Samal
 * 2014 – Jagru Mahato
 * 2015 – Sadashiva Pradhan
 * 2016 – Gopal Prasad Dubey
 * 2017 – Janmajay Saibabu
 * 2018 – Tapan Kumar Pattanayak (Seraikella)
 * 2019 – Brajendra Kumar Pattnaik
 * 2020 – Trilochan Mohanta
 * 2021 – Bhuvan Kumar
 * 2022 – Sadhucharan Mahato
 * 2023 – Parikshit Mahato

Creative dance/Choreography

 * 1960 – Uday Shankar
 * 1970 – Mrinalini Sarabhai
 * 1976 – Narendra Sharma
 * 1979 – Prabhat Ganguli
 * 1980 – R. K. Priyagopal Sana
 * 1981 – Parvati Kumar
 * 1984 – Rajkumar Singhajit Singh
 * 1989 – Maya Rao
 * 1991 – Chandralekha
 * 1992 – Sachin Shankar
 * 1993 – Manjusri Chaki Sircar
 * 1995 – Astad Deboo
 * 1999–2000 Mallika Sarabhai
 * 2001 – Gul Bardhan
 * 2002 – Sambhu Bhattacharya
 * 2005 – Th. Chaotombi Singh
 * 2006 – Gorima Hazarika
 * 2008 – Yogsunder Desai
 * 2009 – Daksha Sheth
 * 2010 – Uttara Asha Coorlawala
 * 2011 – Tanushree Shankar
 * 2014 – Navtej Singh Johar
 * 2015 – W. Lokendrajit Singh
 * 2016 – Anita Ratnam
 * 2018 – Deepak Mazumdar
 * 2019 – Mamata Shankar
 * 2020 – Bhushan Lakhandri
 * 2022 – Bharat Sharma
 * 2023 – Nirupama Rajendra

Kathak

 * 1955 – Shambhu Maharaj
 * 1957 – Baijnath Prasad "Lacchu Maharaj"
 * 1959 – Sunder Prasad
 * 1962 – Mohanrao Kallianpurkar
 * 1964 – Birju Maharaj
 * 1968 – Damayanti Joshi
 * 1969 – Sitara Devi
 * 1974 – Gauri Shankar Devilal Kathak
 * 1975 – Roshan Kumari
 * 1979 – Rohini Bhate
 * 1982 – Kartik Ram, Kumudini Lakhia
 * 1984 – Durga Lal
 * 1987 – Uma Sharma
 * 1991 – Reba Vidyarthi
 * 1995 – Ramlal Bareth
 * 1996 – Rani Karnaa
 * 1998 – Sunderlal Sathyanarayan Gangani
 * 1999–2000 – Shovana Narayan
 * 2000 – Surendra Saikia
 * 2002 – Rajendra Gangani
 * 2003 – Sunayana Hazarilal Agarwal, Urmila Nagar
 * 2004 – Saswati Sen
 * 2005 – Tirath Ram Azad
 * 2006 – Munna Shukla
 * 2007 – Geetanjali Lal
 * 2008 – Shashi Sankhla
 * 2009 – Prerana Shrimali
 * 2010 – Malabika Mitra
 * 2011 – Manjushree Chatterjee
 * 2012 – Vijay Shankar
 * 2013 – Rajashree Shirke
 * 2014 – Uma Dogra
 * 2016 – Jitendra Maharaj
 * 2017 – Shobha Koser
 * 2018 – Maulik Shah, Ishira Parikh
 * 2019 – Raghav Raj Bhatt & Mangala Bhatt
 * 2020 – Kumkum Dhar
 * 2021 – Shama Bhate
 * 2022 – Kamalini Asthana and Nalini Asthana
 * 2023 – Jagdish Gangani

Kathakali

 * 1956 – Guru Kunchu Kurup
 * 1958 – Thotton K. Chandu Panikkar
 * 1961 – Thekinkatti Ramunni Nair
 * 1963 – Chenganoor Raman Pillai
 * 1965 – Guru Gopinath
 * 1967 – Kalamandalam Krishnan Nair
 * 1968 – Kurichi Kunjan Panickar
 * 1969 – Vazhenkada Kunchu Nair
 * 1970 – M. Vishnu Namboodiri
 * 1971 – Kudamaloor Karunakaran Nair
 * 1972 – M. Madhava Panicker
 * 1973 – Velinezhi K. Nanu Nayar
 * 1973 – Kavungal Chathunni Panicker
 * 1974 – Kalamandalam Ramankutty Nair
 * 1975 – K. Sankarankutty Panicker
 * 1983 – Champakulam Pachu Pillai
 * 1985 – Mankompu Sivasankara Pillai
 * 1987 – Kalamandalam Gopi
 * 1988 – Keezhpadam Kumaran Nair
 * 1989 – Oyoor Kochugovinda Pillai
 * 1991 – Chennithala Chellapan Pillai
 * 1993 – Kalamandalam Padmanabhan Nair
 * 1996 – Kottakkal Krishnan Kutty Nair
 * 1997 – Madavoor Vasudevan Nair
 * 1998 – Kottakkal Sivaraman
 * 1999–2000 – Nelliyode Vasudevan Namboodiri
 * 2003 – Sadanam P. V. Balakrishnan
 * 2004 – Kalamandalam Vasu Pisharody
 * 2005 – Mathoor Govindan Kutty
 * 2006 – Kottakkal Chandrasekharan
 * 2007 – Sadanam Krishnankutty
 * 2008 – Kalamandalam Kuttan
 * 2009 – Kalamandalam Rajan
 * 2010 – Kalamandalam K. G. Vasudevan
 * 2011 – Thonnakkal Peethambaran
 * 2012 – Vazhengada Vijayan
 * 2013 – Kalamandalam M. P. S. Namboodiri
 * 2015 – K. Kunhiraman Nair
 * 2016 – Kalamandalam Ramachandran Unnithan
 * 2017 – Madambi Subramanian Namboodiri
 * 2019 – Kottakkal Nandakumaran Nair
 * 2021 – Inchakkattu Ramachandran Pillai
 * 2022 – Kalamandalam Balasubrahmaniyam
 * 2023 – Margi Vijayakumar

Kuchipudi

 * 1961 – Vedantam Satyanarayana Sarma ‘Satyam’
 * 1968 – Chinta Krishnamurthy
 * 1978 – C. Ramacharyalu
 * 1981 – Vempati Chinna Satyam
 * 1983 – Nataraja Ramakrishna (also Bharatanatyam)
 * 1985 – Vedantam Prahlada Sarma
 * 1987 – Pasumarthi Venugopala Krishna Sarma
 * 1990 – Sobha Naidu
 * 1991 – Raja Reddy and Radha Reddy
 * 1993 – Josyula Seetharamaiah
 * 1994 – Vedantam Parvateesam
 * 1998 – Veernala Jayarama Rao and Banashree Rao
 * 1999–2000 – Swapnasundari Rao
 * 2003 – K. Uma Rama Rao
 * 2004 – Pasumarthi Seetha Ramiah
 * 2005 – Korada Narasimha Rao
 * 2006 – Pasumarthi Rathiah Sarma
 * 2007 – Yelesarapu Nageswara Sarma
 * 2008 – Vasanta Lakshmi and Narasimhachari
 * 2009 – Vyjayanthi Kashi
 * 2010 – Ratna Kumar
 * 2011 – Alekhya Punjala
 * 2012 – Vedantam Ramalinga Sastry
 * 2013 – Chinta Seetha Ramanjaneyulu
 * 2014 – Vedantam Radhesyam
 * 2015 – Gaddam Padmaja Reddy
 * 2016 – A B Bala Kondala Rao
 * 2017 – Deepika Reddy
 * 2018 – Pasumarthy Ramalinga Sastry
 * 2019 – Manju Barggavee
 * 2020 – Pasumarthy Vithal and Bharathi Vithal
 * 2021 – N. Sailaja
 * 2022 – Bhagavatula Sethuram
 * 2023 – Maddali Usha Gayatri

Manipuri

 * 1956 – Maisnam Amubi Singh
 * 1958 – Haobam Atomba Singh
 * 1961 – T. Amudon Sharma
 * 1963 – Atombapu Sharma
 * 1965 – Guru Bipin Singh
 * 1969 – Ojha Thangjam Chaoba Singh
 * 1972 – Kshetri Tombi Devi
 * 1973 – L. Koireng Singh
 * 1974 – L. Ibemhal Devi
 * 1975 – Rajani Maibi
 * 1976 – Ojha Maibam Ibungohal Singh
 * 1977 – Nayana Susheel Jhaveri
 * 1980 – L. Thouranishabi Devi
 * 1982 – L. Tombi Devi
 * 1985 – Khaidem Lokeshwar Singh
 * 1987 – Tarun Kumar Singh
 * 1988 – Ibopishak Sharma
 * 1990 – Th. Babu Singh
 * 1993 – H. Ngangbi Devi
 * 1994 – T. Nadia Singh
 * 1995 – L. Thambalngoubi Devi
 * 1996 – Darshana Jhaveri
 * 1997 – Samanduram Tondon Devi
 * 1998 – N. Madhabi Devi
 * 1999–2000 – Sorokhaibam Naran Singh
 * 2001 – Charu Sija Mathur
 * 2002 – K. Ongbi Leipaklotpi Devi
 * 2003 – Thiyam Suryamukhi Devi, Kalavati Devi
 * 2005 – K. Radhamohon Sharma
 * 2009 – L. Bino Devi
 * 2010 – Phanjoubam Iboton Singh
 * 2011 – Priti Patel
 * 2014 – N. Amusana Devi
 * 2016 – Maisnam Kaminikumar Singh
 * 2017 – L.N. Oinam Ongdi Doni Devi
 * 2018 – Akham Lakshmi Devi
 * 2020 – Sruti Bandopadhay
 * 2021 – Thokchom Ibemubi Devi
 * 2022 – S. Noyonshakhi Devi
 * 2023 – Latasana Devi

Mohiniattam

 * 1972 – T. Chinnammu Amma
 * 1978 – Kalamandalam Kalyanikutty Amma
 * 1994 – Kalamandalam Satyabhama
 * 1998 – Kalamandalam Kshemavathy
 * 1999–2000 – Bharati Shivaji
 * 2004 – Kalamandalam Sugandhi
 * 2006 – Kalamandalam Vimala Menon
 * 2007 – Deepti Omchery Bhalla
 * 2008 – Kalamandalam Leelamma
 * 2011 – V. K. Hymavathy
 * 2015 – Mandakini Trivedi
 * 2018 – Gopika Varma
 * 2019 – Nirmala Paniker
 * 2021 – Neena Prasad
 * 2022 – Kala Vijayan
 * 2023 – Pallavi Krishnan

Odissi

 * 1966 – Kelucharan Mohapatra
 * 1970 – Pankaj Charan Das
 * 1976 – Sanjukta Panigrahi (joint award with Raghunath Panigrahi for Odissi music)
 * 1977 – Deba Prasad Das
 * 1985 – Mayadhar Raut
 * 1986 – Priyambada Mohanty Hejmadi
 * 1987 – Sonal Mansingh
 * 1992 – D. N. Pattnaik
 * 1994 – Kumkum Mohanty
 * 1995 – Raghunath Dutta
 * 1997 – Gangadhar Pradhan
 * 1999–2000 – Minati Mishra, Madhavi Mudgal
 * 2002 – Kiran Segal
 * 2003 – Hare Krishna Behera
 * 2004 – Durllav Chandra Singh
 * 2005 – Durga Charan Ranbir
 * 2006 – Surendra Nath Jena
 * 2007 – Ranjana Gauhar
 * 2008 – Ramani Ranjan Jena
 * 2009 – Geeta Mahalik
 * 2010 – Aruna Mohanty
 * 2011 – Ramli Ibrahim
 * 2012 – Sharmila Biswas
 * 2013 – Sangeeta Dash
 * 2014 – Sudhakar Sahoo
 * 2015 – Aloka Kanungo
 * 2016 – Ratikant Mohapatra
 * 2017 – Sujata Mohapatra
 * 2018 – Surupa Sen
 * 2019 – Sutapa Talukdar
 * 2020 – Rabindra Atibudhi
 * 2022 – Niranjan Rout
 * 2023 – Snehaprava Samantaray

Sattriya

 * 1963 – Maniram Datta Moktar
 * 1978 – Bapuram Bayan Attai
 * 1980 – Roseshwar Saikia Bayan Moktar
 * 1996 – Indira P. P. Bora
 * 1998 – Pradip Chaliha
 * 1999–2000 – Parmanand Borbayan
 * 2001 – Ghanakanta Bora
 * 2004 – Jatin Goswami
 * 2007 – Ganakanta Dutta Borbayan
 * 2010 – Manik Borbayan
 * 2013 – Jogen Dutta Bayan
 * 2014 – Anita Sharma
 * 2015 – Sarodi Saikia
 * 2016 – Haricharan Bhuyan Borbayan
 * 2017 – Ramkrishna Talukdar
 * 2018 – Tankeswar Hazarika Borbayan
 * 2019 – Ranjumoni Saikia
 * 2022 – Gobinda Saikia
 * 2023 – Bhaben Borbayan

Other major traditions of dance and dance theatre

 * 2007 – Kalamandalam Sivan Namboodiri (Kutiyattam)
 * 2009 – Kala Krishna (Andhranatyam)
 * 2010 – Painkulam Rama Chakyar (Kutiyattam)
 * 2012 – Painkulam Damodara Chakyar (Kutiyattam)
 * 2013 – Srinivasa Rangachariar (Arayer Sevai)
 * 2021 – Kalamandalam Girija (Kutiyattam)
 * 2022 – Karuna Borah (Ankiya Bhaona)
 * 2023 – Perini Prakash (Periniattam)

Music for dance

 * 2005 – Josyula Krishna Murthy (Kuchipudi Bhagavatha Maddalla)
 * 2006 – Kalamandalam Gangadharan (Kathakali Pattu)
 * 2008 – Ramhari Das (Odissi)
 * 2010 – S. Rajeswari (Bharatanatyam)
 * 2011 – Karaikudi Krishnamurthi
 * 2012 – Jwala Prasad
 * 2013 – Dhaneshwar Swain
 * 2014 – Varanasi Vishnu Namboothiri (Kathakali)
 * 2015 – Rajkumar Bharathi
 * 2017 – Ashit Desai
 * 2020 – Prema Ramamurthy, Arambam Tombinou Devi
 * 2021 – Bijay Kumar Jena
 * 2022 – Pusthakam Ramaa
 * 2023 – Kalinath Mishra

Folk and Tribal dance

 * 2017 – Mukund Nayak

Assamese

 * 1961 – Mitradev Mahanta Adhikari
 * 2001 – Girish Chowdhury

Bengali theatre

 * 1958 – Ahindra Choudhury
 * 1962 – Tripti Mitra
 * 1967 – Sabitabrata Dutta
 * 1970 – Saraju Bala Devi
 * 1973 – Shobha Sen
 * 1975 – Molina Devi
 * 1977 – Krishna Roy
 * 1983 – Kumar Roy
 * 1989 – Sekhar Chatterjee
 * 1995 – Satya Bandopadhyay
 * 1998 – Soumitra Chatterjee
 * 1999–2000 – Ketaki Dutta Sabitri Chatterjee
 * 2003 – Shaoli Mitra

Gujarati theatre

 * 1960 – Ashraf Khan
 * 1965 – Muljibhai Khushalbhai Nayak
 * 1968 – Jashwant Thaker
 * 1974 – Pransukh Manilal Nayak
 * 1980 – Dina Pathak (Gandhi)
 * 1988 – Sarita Joshi

Hindi theatre

 * 1979 – Amrish Puri
 * 1982 – Manohar Singh
 * 1984 – Uttara Baokar
 * 1985 – Fida Hussain
 * 1989 – Surekha Sikri
 * 1990– Naseeruddin Shah (also Urdu)
 * 1999–2000 – Seema Biswas

Kannada

 * 1955 – Gubbi Veeranna
 * 1961 – Subbaiah Naidu
 * 1985 – B. Jayamma
 * 1992 – R. Nagarathnamma
 * 1994 – Balappa Yenagi
 * 1996 – B. Jayashree
 * 2003 – C. R. Simha

Malayalam

 * 1960 – C. I. Parameswaran Pillai
 * 1965 – V. T. Aravindaksha Menon
 * 1969 – N. N. Pillai

Manipuri

 * 1991 – Sabitri Heisnam
 * 1997 – R. K. Bhogen

Marathi theatre

 * 1955 – Narayan Rao Rajhans 'Bal Gandharva'
 * 1956 – Ganesh Govind Bodas
 * 1957 – Chintaman Ganesh Kolhatkar
 * 1960 – Gopal Govind Pathak
 * 1964 – Keshav Trimbak Date
 * 1971 – Shreeram Lagoo
 * 1976 – Jyotsna Bhole
 * 1978 – Dattaram N. Walwaikar
 * 1981 – Chintamani Govind Pendse
 * 1983 – Dattatray Ramachandra Bhat
 * 1986 – Prabhakar V. Panshikar
 * 1987 – Sulabha Deshpande (also Hindi)
 * 1988 – Saudagar Nagnath Gore 'Chhota Gandharva'
 * 1990 – Bhakti Barve Inamdar
 * 1991 – Neelu Phule
 * 1996 – Mohan Agashe

Oriya

 * 1961 – Samuel Sahu

Sanskrit

 * 1965 – Krishnachandra Moreshwar "Daji Bhatawadekar"

Tamil

 * 1959 – Pammal Sambandha Mudaliar
 * 1962 – T. K. Shanmugam
 * 1967 – S. V. Sahasranamam
 * 1992 – Poornam Viswanathan

Telugu theatre

 * 1961 – Sthanam Narasimha Rao
 * 1963 – Banda Kanakalingeswara Rao
 * 1973 – Kalyanam Raghuramaiah
 * 1986 – Peesapati Narasimha Murty

Urdu

 * 1963 – Zohra Sehgal
 * 1994 – Uzra Butt

From 2004 onwards

 * 2004 – Rohini Hattangady, Ramcharan Nirmalkar
 * 2005 – Chindodi Leela
 * 2006 – Dharani Barman, Gita Dey, K. Kaladharan Nair
 * 2007 – Ramesh Mehta
 * 2008 – Markand Bhatt, Arundhati Nag
 * 2009 – Sudha Shivpuri, Neeta Mohindra
 * 2010 – Dilip Prabhavalkar, Banwari Taneja, Maya Krishna Rao, Swatilekha Sengupta
 * 2012 – Parvesh Seth, Nirmal Rishi, Purisai Kannappa Sambandan
 * 2013 – Vasant Josalkar, Kusum Haidar
 * 2014 – Debshankar Haldar, Ramdas Kamat
 * 2017 – Anil Tickoo
 * 2018 – Suhas Joshi, Teekam Joshi
 * 2019 – Alok Chatterjee, Pranjal Saikia
 * 2020 – Prashant Damle, Bhupesh Joshi, Amit Banerjee
 * 2021 – Neeleshwar Mishra, Y. G. Mahendran
 * 2022 – Ashok Saraf, Prem Lata Mishra
 * 2023 – Anil Kumar Rastogi, Rajeev Verma

Mime

 * 1993 – Jogesh Dutta
 * 2002 – Niranjan Goswami
 * 2009 – Moinul Haque
 * 2018 – Swapan Nandy
 * 2021 – Vilas Janve
 * 2022 – Yumnam Sadananda Singh

Direction

 * 1957 – Jaishankar Bhojak 'Sundari'
 * 1959 – Sombhu Mitra
 * 1961 – Kasambhai Nathubhai Mir
 * 1962 – Ebrahim Alkazi
 * 1964 – T. S. Rajamanikkam
 * 1969 – Habib Tanvir
 * 1970 – Adi Ferozeshah Marzban
 * 1971 – Satyadev Dubey
 * 1972 – Shyamanand Jalan
 * 1973 – Ajitesh Bandopadhyay
 * 1974 – Damodar Kashinath Kenkre
 * 1975 – Vijaya Mehta
 * 1976 – B. V. Karanth
 * 1977 – Rajinder Nath
 * 1978 – Jabbar Patel
 * 1979 – B. M. Shah
 * 1980 – Rudraprasad Sengupta
 * 1981 – R. S. Manohar
 * 1982 – Sheila Bhatia
 * 1983 – Kavalam Narayana Panikkar
 * 1985 – Heisnam Kanhailal
 * 1986 – Alyque Padamsee
 * 1987 – Tarun Roy
 * 1987 – Ratan Thiyam
 * 1989 – Bibhash Chakraborty
 * 1990 – Geoffrey Kendal & Laura Kendal (Joint Award)
 * 1991 – Fritz Bennewitz
 * 1992 – Mohan Maharishi
 * 1993 – Kailash Pandya
 * 1993 – Barry John
 * 1995 – M. K. Raina
 * 1995 – Bansi Kaul
 * 1996 – Purushottam Darwhekar
 * 1997 – Bhanu Bharti
 * 1998 – Amal Allana
 * 1998 – Dulal Roy
 * 1998 – Usha Ganguly
 * 1999–2000 – Balwant Thakur
 * 1999–2000 – Nadira Zaheer Babbar
 * 1999–2000 – Prasanna
 * 2001 – Shanta Gandhi
 * 2002 – Arun Mukherjee, Satish Anand
 * 2003 – Devendra Raj Ankur, Neelam Mansingh Chowdhry
 * 2004 – Anuradha Kapur, Arambam Lokendra Singh, Raj Besaria
 * 2005 – Ranjit Kapoor, V K Sharma
 * 2006 – E. Joychandra Singh, R. Nagesh, Amitava Dasgupta
 * 2007 – Hari Madhab Mukherjee, N.C. Thakur
 * 2008 – S. Ramanujam, Probir Guha
 * 2009 – Joy Michael, Dinesh Thakur
 * 2010 – Veenapani Chawla, Urmil Kumar Thapliyal
 * 2011 – Alakhnandan, Kirti Jain
 * 2012 – Tripurari Sharma, Waman Kendre
 * 2013 – Kamalkar Muralidhar Sontakke, Kewal Dhaliwal, Prasanna Ramaswamy
 * 2014 – Surya Mohan Kulshreshtha, Chidambar Rao Jambe
 * 2015 – Parvez Akhtar, Mushtaq Kak
 * 2016 – Satyabrata Rout, Rajkamal Nayak
 * 2018 – Sanjay Upadhyay, S. Raghunandana
 * 2019 – Bharti Sharma, Kumar Sohoni, Abinash Sarma
 * 2020 – Lokendra Trivedi, Mithilesh Rai
 * 2021 – R. Venugopal Rao (Surabhi), Lalit Singh Pokharia, Sudesh Sharma, Ajay Malkani, Manoj Pattnaik
 * 2022 – Gunakar Dev Goswami, Suresh Sharma, Susairaj A
 * 2023 – Surinder Sharma, Zahoor Alam

Playwriting

 * Assamese
 * 1986 – Satya Prasad Barua
 * 2003 – Aruna Sarma
 * Bengali
 * 1968 – Badal Sircar
 * 1969 – Manmatha Ray
 * 1975 – Bijon Bhattacharya
 * 1985 – Manoj Mitra
 * 1991 – Mohit Chattopadhyaya
 * Dogri
 * 2008 – Narsingh Dev Jamwal
 * Gujarati
 * 1961 – Prabhulal Dayaram Dwivedi
 * 1971 – C. C. Mehta, Pragji Dossa
 * Hindi
 * 1965 – Upendra Nath Ashk
 * 1968 – Mohan Rakesh
 * 1977 – Lakshmi Narain Lal
 * 1988 – Dharamvir Bharati
 * 1992 – Surendra Verma
 * 2001 – Bhisham Sahni, D.P. Sinha
 * 2006 – Prabhat Kumar Bhattacharya
 * 2004 – Swadesh Deepak
 * 2007 – Reoti Sharan Sharna
 * 2008 – Mudra Rakshasa
 * Kannada
 * 1963 – Adya Rangacharya 'Shriranga'
 * 1972 – Girish Karnad
 * 1983 – Chandrashekhara Kambara
 * 1980 – Narasinga Rao Parwathavani
 * 1989 – G. B. Joshi
 * 1997 – H. S. Shivaprakash
 * Kashmiri
 * 1997 – Moti Lal Kemmu
 * Malayalam
 * 1979 – G. Sankara Pillai
 * 1983 – Kavalam Narayana Panikkar
 * 1986 – K. T. Muhammed
 * 1997 – N. Krishna Pillai
 * 2009 – Vayala Vasudevan Pillai
 * Manipuri
 * 2007 – Yumnam Rajendra Singh
 * Marathi
 * 1958 – B.V. 'Mama' Warerkar
 * 1967 – P. L. Deshpande
 * 1970 – Vijay Tendulkar
 * 1976 – C. T. Khanolkar
 * 1982 – M.G. Rangnekar
 * 1984 – Vasant Shankar Kanetkar
 * 1987 – V.V. Shirwadkar
 * 1989 – Mahesh Elkunchwar
 * 1994 – Satish Alekar
 * 1996 – G.P. Deshpande
 * 2003 – Ratnakar Ramkrishna Matkari
 * 2009 – Shankar Narayan Navre
 * Mizo
 * 2007 – Lathangfala Sailo
 * Oriya
 * 1981 – Manoranjan Das
 * 1982 – Biswajit Das
 * 1987 – Gopal Chhotray
 * Punjabi
 * 1993 – Gursharan Singh
 * 1998 – Balwant Gargi
 * 2010 – Atamjeet Singh
 * Tamil
 * 1974 – S.D. Sundaram
 * 1999–2000 – Na. Muthuswamy
 * 2004 – Indira Parthasarathy
 * Telugu
 * 2010 – D. Vizai Bhaskar

2012 onwards

 * 2012 – Arjun Deo Charan
 * 2013 – Rameshwar Prem, Pundalik Narayan Naik
 * 2014 – Asgar Wajahat
 * 2018 – Rajiv Naik, Laltluangliana Khiangte
 * 2019 – Hrishikesh Sulabh
 * 2022 – Sohan Lal Kaul
 * 2023 – Asif Ali Haider Khan, Pali Bhupinder Singh

Allied Theatre Arts

 * Lighting
 * 1974 – Tapas Sen
 * 1977 – V, Ramamurthy
 * 1989 – G.N. Dasgupta
 * 1994 – Kanishka Sen
 * 1997 – Mansukh Joshi (for scenic design also)
 * 1999–2000 – R.K. Dhingra
 * 2002 – Ashok Sagar Bhagat
 * 2003 – Sreenivas G. Kappanna
 * 2005 – Suresh Bhardwaj
 * 2006 - Gautam Bhattacharya
 * 2011 – Kamal Jain
 * 2019 – Souti Chakraborty
 * 2020 – Raghav Prakash
 * 2022 – Daulat Ram Vaid
 * 2023 – Anoop Joshi, Sandeep Dutta
 * Scenic Design
 * 1985 – Goverdhan Panchal
 * 1986 – Khaled Choudhury
 * 1988 – Dattatraya Ganesh Godse
 * 1997 – Mansukh Joshi
 * 1999–2000 – Robin Das
 * 2007 – Mahendra Kumar
 * Costumes/Make-up
 * 1981 – Ashok Srivastava (Make-up)
 * 1990 – Roshan Alkazi (Costume Design)
 * 1999–2000 – Shakti Sen (Make-up)
 * 2001 – Dolly Ahluwalia (Costume Design)
 * 2003 – Anant Gopal Shinde (Make-up)
 * 2004 – Prema Karanth (Costume Design)
 * 2008 – Amba Sanyal (Costume Designing)
 * 2009 – Kamal Arora (Make-up)
 * 2013 – Krishna Borkar (Make-up)
 * 2019 – N.K. Ramakrishna (Make-up)
 * 2020 – M. Purushottam (Costume Design)
 * Music for Theatre
 * 1999–2000 – Kajal Ghosh, Kamal Tewari
 * 2005 - R. Paramashivan
 * 2009 – Kuldeep Singh
 * 2012 - Murari Roychoudhury
 * 2014 - Amod Bhatt, Amardas Manikpuri (Chhattisgarh)
 * Stagecraft
 * 1993 – M.S. Sathyu
 * 1995 – N. Krishnamoorthy
 * 2002 – Nissar Allana
 * 2005 – H. V. Sharma
 * 2020 – N. Jadumani Singh

Major traditions of theatre

 * 2007 – Kolyur Ramachandra Rao (Yakshagana)
 * 2008 – Bansi Lal Khiladi, Khayal (Rajasthan)
 * 2012 – Ghulam Rasool Bhagat (Bhand Pather)
 * 2014 – Manjunath Bhagwat Hostota (Yakshagana)
 * 2018 – Bhagawat A. S. Nanjappa (Yakshagana), A. M. Parameswaran Kuttan Chakkiyar (Kutiyattam)
 * 2019 – K. S. Krishanappa (Isai Natakam)
 * 2020 – P. P. Kandaswami (Therukoothu)
 * 2021 – Gunindra Nath Ojah (Music and Direction in Ankiya Bhaona)
 * 2022 – Margi Madhu Chakyar (Kutiyattam)
 * 2023 – Piyal Bhattacharya (Sanskrit Theatre)

Other Traditional/ Folk/ Tribal/ Dance/ Music/ Theatre and Puppetry

 * 1964 – Mani Madhava Chakyar (Kutiyattam), Kerala
 * 1969 – Gahan Chandra Goswami (Ankia Nat, Assam)
 * 1972 – Kudamaloor Karunakaran Nair (Kathakali), Kerala
 * 1976 – Raghunath Panigrahi (Joint Award with Sanjukta Panigrahi for Odissi Music, Orissa)
 * 1981 – Kamini Kumar Narzary (Bodo Tribal Dance, Assam)
 * 1983 – Dharmiklal Chunilal Pandya (Akhyana), Gujarat
 * 1983 – Lalit Chandra Ojha (Ojapali and Deodhani Dances, Assam)
 * 1984 – Balakrushna Dash (Odissi Music, Orissa)
 * 1985 – Mohan Chandra Barman (Bhaona, Assam)
 * 1984 – Bhubaneswar Mishra (Odissi Music, Orissa)
 * 1987 – Bhupen Hazarika (Folk Music, Assam)
 * 1988 – Pratima Barua Pandey (Folk Music, Assam)
 * 1989 – Rajen Pam (Tribal Music, Assam)
 * 1990 – Rameshwar Pathak (Folk Music, Assam)
 * 1991 – Puranchand Wadali & Pyarelal Wadali (Folk Music), Punjab
 * 1992 – Khagen Mahanta (Folk Music, Assam)
 * 1994 – M. Boyer (Tiatr), Goa
 * 1995 – Teejan Bai (Pandavani), Madhya Pradesh
 * 1997 – Arghya sen [(Rabindra Sangeet), West Bengal
 * 1997 – P. R. Thilagam, Kuravanji performer, Tamil Nadu
 * 1998 – Ghulam Mohammad Saznawaz, Jammu and Kashmir
 * 2002 – Dilip Sarma & Sudakshina Sarma (Jyoti Sangeet, Assam - Joint Award)
 * 2003 – Prabhat Sarma (traditional & Folk Music, Assam)
 * 2003 – Kosha Kanta Deva Goswami (Mask Making Bhaona, Assam)
 * 2003 – Banamali Maharana (Odissi Music, Orissa)
 * 2005 – Khirod Khakhlari (Bodo Dance & Music, Assam)
 * 2005 – Kashinath Pujapanda (Odissi Music, Orissa)
 * 2005 – Mathoor Govindan Kutty (Kathakali), Kerala
 * 2007 – Subodh Debbarma (Folk dance), Tripura
 * 2007 – Amar Pal (Folk Song), West Bengal
 * 2008 – Kartar Singh (Gurbani), Punjab
 * 2008 – Mangi Bai Arya (Mand), Rajasthan
 * 2008 – Lakha Khan Mangniyar, (Folk Music), Rajasthan
 * 2008 – Bansi Lal Khilari (Khayal), Rajasthan
 * 2009 – Bhikhudan Gadhvi (Folk music), Gujarat
 * 2010 – Harbhajan Singh Namdhari (Gurbani Kirtan), Punjab
 * 2010 – Nazeer Ahmed Khan Warsi and Naseer Ahmed Khan Warsi (Qawwali), Andhra Pradesh
 * 2010 – Dwijen Mukherjee (Rabindra Sangeet), West Bengal
 * 2010 – Chandabai Tiwadi (Bharud), Maharashtra
 * 2010 – T. Somasundaram (Folk dance), Tamil Nadu
 * 2010 – Krishna Kumari (Folk music: Bhakha), Jammu and Kashmir
 * 2010 – Chand Jagdish Tiwadi (Folk theatre: Bharud), Maharashtra
 * 2011 – Trippekulam Achuta Marar, Kerala
 * 2011 – Hemant Chauhan (Folk Music), Gujarat
 * 2011 – Gurmeet Bawa (Folk Music), Punjab
 * 2011 – Kashiram Sahu (Folk Theatre), Chhattisgarh
 * 2011 – Mipham Otsal (Traditional Theatre), Jammu & Kashmir
 * 2011 – Bellagallu Veeranna (Togalu Gombeyatta, Puppetry), Karnataka
 * 2011 – Gopal Chandra Das (Putul Nach), Tripura
 * 2011 – Kasmi Khan Niyazi (Making of musical Instrument), DeIhi
 * 2012 – Go Ru Channabasappa (Folk Music - Karnataka)
 * 2012 – Kinaram Nath Oja (Suknani Ojapali - Assam)
 * 2012 – Prem Singh Dehati (Folk Music - Haryana)
 * 2012 – Sulochana Chavan (Lavani - Maharashtra)
 * 2012 – Mattannur Sankaran Kutty Marar (Thayambaka - Kerala)
 * 2012 – Govind Ram Nirmalkar (Nacha - Chhattisgarh)
 * 2012 – Heera Das Negi (Mask Making - Himachal Pradesh)
 * 2013 – Meeenakshi K. (Instrument Making - Ghatam - Tamil Nadu)
 * 2013 – Raj Begum, Traditional, Folk Music/Dance & Theatre (Jammu & Kashmir)
 * 2013 – T.A.R. Nadi Rao & N Jeeva Rao (Joint Award), Folk Music (Tamil Nadu)
 * 2013 – Gurdial Singh, Instrument Making (Punjab)
 * 2013 – Mohan Singh Khangura, Rabindra Sangeet (West Bengal)
 * 2013 – Umakanta Gogoi (Bairagi), Tokari Geet and Dehbichar Geet, (Assam)
 * 2013 – Sheikh Riyajuddin alias Rajubaba, Folk Theatre (Maharashtra)
 * 2014 – Puran Shah Koti (Traditional Music - Punjab)
 * 2014 – Kalamandalam Ram Mohan (Makeup/Costume for Kathakali)
 * 2014 – Reba Kanta Mohanta (Mask Making - Assam)
 * 2014 – Abdul Rashid Hafiz (Folk Music - Jammu & Kashmir )
 * 2014 – K.Shanathoiba Sharma (Thang-Ta - Manipur)
 * 2014 – Ramdayal Sharma (Nautanki - U.P.)
 * 2014 – Thanga Darlong (Folk Music - Tripura)
 * 2015 - K. K. Ramachandra Pulavar (Tholpavakoothu)
 * 2015 – Ramchandra Singh (Folk Theater - Bihar)
 * 2017 – Mukund Nayak (Folk Music - Jharkhand)
 * 2017 – Prakash Khandge (Folk Arts - Maharashtra)
 * 2018 – Malini Awasthi (Folk Music - Uttar Pradesh)
 * 2018 – Gazi Khan Barna (Folk Music - Khartal, Rajasthan)
 * 2018 – Narendra Singh Negi (Folk Songs - Uttarakhand)
 * 2018 – Niranjan Rajyaguru (Folk Music - Gujarat)
 * 2018 – Mohd. Sadiq Bhagat (Folk Theatre - Bhand Pather, J&K)
 * 2018 – Kota Sachidanand Shastry (Harikatha - Andhra Pradesh)
 * 2018 – Arjun Singh Dhurve (Folk Dance - Madhya Pradesh)
 * 2018 – Somnath Battu (Folk Music - Himachal Pradesh)
 * 2018 – Hem Chandra Goswami (Mask Making - Assam)
 * 2019 – Mamta Chandrakar (Folk Music Chhattisgarh)
 * 2019 – Ram Lal (Folk Music, Uttarakhand)
 * 2019 – Shankarbhai Hakabhai Dharjiya (Folk Music & Dance - Gujarat)
 * 2019 – Nathulal Solanki (Folk Music - Rajasthan)
 * 2019 – Pandurang Ghotkar (Folk Music - Maharashtra)
 * 2019 – Peruvanam Kuttan Marar (Thayambaka - Kerala)
 * 2019 – Urmila Pandey (Folk Music - Madhya Pradesh)
 * 2019 – Sayed Mohmmed P.P. (Folk Music & Dance - Lakshadweep)
 * 2019 – Majid Gulabsaheb Sitarmaker (Instrument Making - Maharashtra)
 * 2019 – Dulal Kanji (Instrument Making - West Bengal)
 * 2020 – Balkar Sidhu (Folk Dance - Punjab)
 * 2020 – Nandlal Garg (Folk Music - Himachal Pradesh)
 * 2020 – B. Lalthlengliana (Folk Theatre - Mizoram)
 * 2020 – Ranjana Kumri Jha (Folk Music - Bihar)
 * 2020 – S. G. Lakshmidevamma (Folk Music - Karnataka)
 * 2020 – Tarubala Debbarma (Folk Music and Dance - Tripura)
 * 2020 – Sang Jangmu (Folk Dance - Arunachal Pradesh)
 * 2020 – Gafoor Khan Manganiar (Folk Music - Rajasthan)
 * 2020 – Zachunu Keyho (Folk Music - Nagaland)
 * 2021 – Silbi Passah (Folk Music - Meghalaya)
 * 2021 – Durga Prasad Murmu (Folk Music and Dance - Jharkhand)
 * 2021 – Prashanna Gogoi (Folk Music & Dance - Assam)
 * 2021 – Gartigere Raghanna (H. N Raghavenda) (Folk Music - Karnataka)
 * 2021 – S Samundaram (Folk Music - Tamil Nadu)
 * 2021 – Data Ram Purohit (Folk Music & Theatre - Uttarakhand)
 * 2021 – Mahavir Singh Guddu (Folk Music & Dance - Haryana)
 * 2021 – N Tiken Singh (Folk Music - Manipur)
 * 2021 – N. Sekar (Folk Music - Puducherry)
 * 2021 – R. Murugan (Instrument Making - Tamil Nadu)
 * 2022 – Shailesh Shrivastava (Folk Music - Uttar Pradesh)
 * 2022 – Vijay Shamrao Chavan (Folk Music - Dholak, Maharashtra)
 * 2022 – Tsering Jorgais (Folk Music - Ladakh)
 * 2022 – Olen Megu Damin (Folk &Traditional Music & Dance - Arunachal Pradesh)
 * 2022 – Nitu Kumari Nootan (Folk Music - Bihar)
 * 2022 – Gaffruddin Mewati Jogi (Folk/Traditional Music – Bhapang, Rajasthan)
 * 2022 – Tarawati Bori (Folk /Traditional Music - Assam)
 * 2022 – K. Viswanatha Pulavar (Puppetry - Tholpavakoothu)
 * 2022 – Mahendrakumar Karsandas Andani (Folk Dance - Gujarat)
 * 2022 – Chingtham Ranjeet Khuman (Thang Ta - Manipur)
 * 2022 – Poonam Tivari (Folk Music - Chhattisgarh)
 * 2023 – Kanta Kashinath Gaude (Folk Music, Goa)
 * 2023 – Swapan Mukhopadhyay (Folk Music, West Bengal)
 * 2023 – Rakesh Bhatt (Folk Theatre/Music, Uttarakhand)
 * 2023 – Krishna Lal Sehgal (Folk Song- Himachal Pradesh)
 * 2023 – Bharat Sharma Vyas (Folk Music, Bihar)
 * 2023 – Helen Giri Syiem (Folk & traditional Music, Meghalaya)
 * 2023 – P. K. Kunhiraman (Traditional Music - Chenda, Kerala)
 * 2023 – Abdul Gaffar Das Kanihami (Folk Music, Jammu & Kashmir)
 * 2023 – Jayantibhai Maganbhai Sharma (Instrument Making, Gujarat)
 * 2023 – K. Pajanivel (Martial Arts, Puducherry)
 * 2023 – Gurpreet Singh Khalsa (Martial Arts, Punjab)

Puppetry/ Mime/ Allied arts of traditional forms

 * 1978 – Kathinanada Das (Ravanchhaya puppetry), Orissa
 * 1979 – U. Kogga Devanna Kamath (Gombeatta puppetry), Karnataka
 * 1980 – K.L. Krishnan Kutty Pulavar (Tholpava Koothu), Kerala
 * 1981 – M.R. Ranganatha Rao, Karnataka
 * 1983 – Meher Rustom Contractor, Gujarat
 * 1987 – Suresh Dutta, West Bengal
 * 1992 – Dadi Dorab Pudumjee, Delhi
 * 1995 – T. Hombiah, Karnataka
 * 1998 – Kolhacharan Sahu (Ravanchhaya puppetry), Orissa
 * 1999 – B.H. Puttashamachar, Karanataka
 * 2001 – Hiren Bhattacharya, Assam
 * 2003 – Puran Bhatt, Rajasthan
 * 2004 – Maguni Charan Kuanr, Odisha
 * 2005 – Ganpat Sakharam Masge, Maharashtra
 * 2010 – K. Chinna Anjannamma (Shadow puppetry: Tolu Bommalata), Andhra Pradesh
 * 2010 – K.V. Ramakrishnan and K.C. Ramakrishnan (Glove puppetry: Pava Kathakali), Kerala
 * 2012 – Prafulla Karmakar (Traditional Puppetry - West Bengal)
 * 2013 – Lilavati M Kavi (Bajaj), Puppetry
 * 2014 – K. Kesavasamy (Puppetry - Puducherry)
 * 2016 – Prabhitangsu Das (Contemporary Puppetry - Tripura)
 * 2018 – Anupama Hoskere (Classical String Puppetry of Karnataka, Bengaluru)
 * 2020 – Meena Nayak (Puppetry - Maharashtra)