{"id":57658,"date":"2025-10-27T18:57:59","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T13:27:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=57658"},"modified":"2025-10-28T10:59:57","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T05:29:57","slug":"classical-languages-of-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/27-10-2025\/classical-languages-of-india","title":{"rendered":"Classical Languages of India"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS1\/Culture<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>As of 2025, a total of <strong>11 Indian languages hold the status of Classical Language.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>About Classical Languages<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Government of India conferred the \u2018Classical Language\u2019 status to <strong>Marathi, Pali, Prakrit, Assamese, and Bengali languages in 2024.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Six Indian languages<\/strong> \u2014Tamil, Sanskrit, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, and Odia\u2014were earlier accorded the status of classical languages between 2004 to 2024.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>All the Classical Languages are <strong>listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Criteria for Classical Language:<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>High antiquity of its early texts or recorded history, spanning a period of 1,500-2,000 years.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A body of ancient literature or texts that is considered heritage by generations of speakers.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Knowledge texts, especially prose texts, in addition to poetry, epigraphical and inscriptional evidence.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Classical Language and its literature may be distinct from its current form or show discontinuity with later forms derived from the original.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Significance:<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Recognising a language as Classical is a <strong>way of honouring and acknowledging its historical importance<\/strong> and profound impact on India\u2019s cultural and intellectual identity.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It is significant in preserving and transmitting ancient knowledge, philosophies, and values over thousands of years.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>This status not only enhances their prestige but also supports efforts to <strong>protect, promote, and further study these languages.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Steps Undertaken to Promote Classical Languages<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Central Institute:<\/strong> The promotion of all Indian languages, including Classical Languages, is done through the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL).\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It is a subordinate office of the Ministry of Education, was set up in <strong>1969 <\/strong>at Mysore.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Institute promotes Indian languages through several comprehensive schemes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Special Centres:<\/strong> In addition to this special centres have been set up for the study and promotion of the classical languages, either independently or under CIIL.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>While<strong> four of the centres for classical languages<\/strong> function under the aegis of the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), Mysuru, the <strong>centre for Tamil is autonomous.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>For the promotion of Sanskrit,<\/strong> dedicated universities also receive funds directly from the Union Education Ministry.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#fff2cc\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Eighth Schedule<\/strong><br>&#8211; The Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India lists the <strong>official languages of the Republic of India. Part XVII<\/strong> of the Indian Constitution deals with the official languages in <strong>Articles 343 to 351.<\/strong>The Eighth Schedule includes the recognition of the following <strong>22 languages:<\/strong><br>1. Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Bodo, Santhali, Maithili and Dogri are the 22 languages presently in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution.<br>2. Of these languages, 14 were initially included in the Constitution. Subsequently, Sindhi was added in 1967; Konkani, Manipuri and Nepali were added in 1992; and Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Santali were added by the 92nd Amendment Act of 2003.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pib.gov.in\/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2182753#:~:text=As%20of%20October%202025%2Ca,languages%20between%202004%20to%202024.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>PIB<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Context<\/strong><\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">As of 2025, a total of 11 Indian languages hold the status of Classical Language.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><strong>About Classical Languages<\/strong><\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">The Government of India conferred the \u2018Classical Language\u2019 status to Marathi, Pali, Prakrit, Assamese, and Bengali languages in 2024.<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Six Indian languages \u2014Tamil, Sanskrit, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, and Odia\u2014were earlier accorded the status of classical languages between 2004 to 2024.<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">All the Classical Languages are listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.<\/li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/27-10-2025\/classical-languages-of-india\" class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read\u00a0More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":57702,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2025\/10\/classical-languages-of-india.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57658"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57730,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57658\/revisions\/57730"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}