Vairamuthu has been conferred the Jnanpith Award 2026, becoming the third Tamil writer to receive it and the first in 24 years. The earlier Tamil laureates were Akilan and Jayakanthan. Vairamuthu had won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2003 for his novel Kallikattu Ithikasam.
India's oldest and highest literary honour, the Jnanpith was instituted in 1961 by Bharatiya Jnanpith, which Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain founded in 1944. It is given to writers in the languages of the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution and English. Of the 23 eligible languages, works in 16 have won so far.