Narayan won numerous awards during the course of his literary career.[107] He won his first major award, in 1960, the Sahitya Akademi Award for The Guide.[48] When the book was made into a film, he received the Filmfare Award for the best story. In 1963, he received the Padma Bhushan during the Republic Day honours.[108] In 1980, he was awarded the AC Benson Medal by the (British) Royal Society of Literature, of which he was an honorary member.[109] In 1982 he was elected an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.[78] He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature multiple times, but never won the honour.[110] In 1986, he was honoured by Rajyotsava Prashasti from Government of Karnataka.[111]
Recognition also came in the form of honorary doctorates conferred by the University of Leeds (1967),[112] Delhi University (1973)[113] and the University of Mysore (1976).[114] Toward the end of his career, Narayan was nominated to the upper house of the Indian Parliament for a six-year term starting in 1989, for his contributions to Indian literature.[70] A year before his death, in 2000, he was awarded India's second-highest civilian honour, the Padma Vibhushan.[115]
