Cabinet approves conferring status of Classical Language to Marathi, Pali, Prakrit, Assamese and Bengali languages
New Delhi, 3 October
The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved to confer the status of Classical Language to Marathi, Pali, Prakrit, Assamese and Bengali languages. The Classical Languages serve as a custodian of Bharat’s profound and ancient cultural heritage, embodying the essence of each community’s historical and cultural milestone.
Point Wise Detail & Background:
The Government of India decided to create a new category of languages as "Classical Languages" on 12th October 2004 declaring Tamil as Classical Language and setting following as criteria for the status of Classical Language:
A. High Antiquity of its early texts/ recorded history over a thousand years.
B. A body of ancient literature/ texts, which is considered a valuable heritage by generation of speakers.
C. The literary tradition must be original and not borrowed from another speech community.
A Linguistic Experts Committee (LEC) was constituted by the Ministry of Culture under Sahitya Akademi in Nov 2004 to examine the proposed languages for the status of Classical Language.
The criteria were revised in Nov 2005 as following, and Sanskrit was declared as Classical Language:
I. High antiquity of its early texts/recorded history over a period of 1500-2000 years.
II. A body of ancient literature/texts, which is considered a valuable heritage by generations of speakers.
III. The literary tradition be original and not borrowed from another speech community.
IV. The classical language and literature being distinct from modern, there may also be a discontinuity between the classical language and its later forms or its offshoots.
