 He received the Jnanpith Award, India's highest literary award, for the year 2007.He was the fifth Jnanpith laureate from Kerala and the second Malayalam poet to win the prestigious award.According to a statement by Bharatiya Jnanpith, the trust which presents the award, Kurup began his career as a "progressive writer and matured into a humanist though he never gave up his commitment to socialist ideology".