5 More Languages, Including Marathi and Bengali, To Get “Classical” Status

New Delhi: In a major decision, the Union Cabinet on Thursday approved giving the status of “classical language” to five more languages –  Marathi, Bengali, Pali, Prakrit and Assamese. With this cabinet decision, the number of languages that have the status will nearly double from six to 11. 

The languages that had the tag earlier were Tamil, Sanskrit, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Odia. Tamil was granted the status in 2004 and the last language to get it was Odia, in 2014. 

The demand for giving the status to some of these languages had been made a decade ago, in some cases. This includes Marathi and, in 2014, then Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan had set up a committee of language experts. The panel had said that Marathi met all the criteria to be recognised as a classical language and this report was sent to the Centre.

The demand has now been fulfilled just ahead of the Maharashtra elections.

To be recognised as a classical language, the following criteria have to be met: 

• High antiquity of the language’s early texts/recorded history over a period of 1,500-2,000 years.
• A body of ancient literature/texts, which is considered a heritage by generations of speakers.
• Knowledge texts, especially prose texts in addition to poetry, epigraphical and Inscriptional evidence.
• The classical languages and literature could be distinct from their current form or could be discontinuous with later forms of their offshoots.