Classical Language

January 15, 2024

West Bengal Chief Minister in a letter to Prime Minister has asked the central government to officially list Bengali as a “classical language”.
So far, the Government of India has officially recognised six languages as having classical status – Tamil (2004), Sanskrit (2005), Telugu, Kannada (2008), Malayalam (2013), and Odia (2014).
As per the Centre’s guidelines, a language must meet some requirements to be declared “classical”.
They include-
- the high antiquity of its early texts;
- recorded history of over 1500-2000 years;
- a body of ancient literature/texts, which is considered a valuable heritage by generations of speakers;
- a literary tradition that’s original and not borrowed from another speech community; and
- being distinct from modern, without discontinuity between the classical language and its later forms or its offshoots.