The Ministry of Education has approved five Centres of Excellence (CoEs) for the study of Classical Assamese, Classical Bengali, Classical Marathi, Classical Pali and Classical Prakrit. The initiative will support research, preservation, digitization and wider study of India’s linguistic and literary heritage.
Five Centres to Be Set Up Across Five States
The Centres will be established at:
– Classical Assamese — Tezpur University, Assam
– Classical Bengali — Visva-Bharati University, West Bengal
– Classical Marathi — Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute, Pune, Maharashtra
– Classical Pali — Central University of Odisha, Koraput, Odisha
– Classical Prakrit — Central University of Gujarat, Gujarat
The Centres will function within universities, making use of their existing academic resources, faculty, research programmes and libraries. They will focus on strengthening research and scholarship, preserving and digitally archiving linguistic and literary material, and making knowledge related to these languages more accessible.
Classical Languages and Their Importance
India now has 11 recognised Classical Languages. Six—Tamil, Sanskrit, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Odia—were recognised between 2004 and 2014, while Marathi, Pali, Prakrit, Assamese and Bengali received the status in October 2024.
For Classical Language status, the criteria include 1,500–2,000 years of recorded history or early texts, a significant body of ancient literature, knowledge texts and inscriptional evidence, along with a distinct or discontinuous relationship with later forms of the language.
The five new Centres are expected to strengthen academic work and help preserve India’s rich linguistic heritage through research, documentation and wider dissemination.