New Delhi, (Agencies) : Jnanpith awardee and renowned Punjabi writer Amrita Pritam passed away in her sleep at around 1600 hrs at the age of 86 at her Hauz Khas residence in South Delhi after a prolonged illness. She was cremated in south Delhi later in the day.

Pritam had been bed-ridden since 2002 after she broke her pelvis bone when she fell down in the bathroom. She died in her sleep early in the afternoon and was discovered dead by her daughter and grandson. The first woman recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award, she was also the first woman to be awarded the Padma Shri.

Born to a Sikh family in Gujranwala, Pakistan, on 31st August, 1919, Pritam crossed over to India after the Partition and several of her writings dealt with the pain she felt at the division of the sub-continent. The violence she witnessed at the time of partition, in which innumerable people were killed in communal riots, was etched in her mind all through her life and formed the substance of a large part of her work.

The only child of a school teacher-poet father, Pritam lost her mother when she was only 11. She was only 16 when she got married to an editor.

Moving to Delhi after the partition, she began writing in Hindi too and worked for the All India Radio till 1961. Pritam got divorced in 1960, roughly the time when her writings started becoming more and more feminist, a reflection of her unhappy marriage.

Pritam has penned 24 novels, 15 collections of short stories and 23 volumes of poems. A winner of numerous literary awards, Pritam was given the Jnanpith Award for lifetime contribution to Punjabi literature in 1982.

Among her famous books are the novels `Pinjar', which was recreated on celluloid recently by director Chandra Prakash Diwedi,"Ek Thi Saara', `Kachchi Sarak', `Unchaas Din' and `Adalat' and a collection of 29 stories of love and romance `Alif Laila--Hazaar Dastan'.