Classical languages of India

This article is about officially recognised classical languages in India. For general classical languages, see classical language.

The Indian Classical languages, or the Śāstrīya Bhāṣā (Hindi) or the Dhrupadī Bhāṣā (Assamese, Bengali) or the Abhijāta Bhāṣā (Marathi) or the Cemmoḻi (Tamil), is an umbrella term for the languages of India having high antiquity, and valuable, original and distinct literary heritage.^[1] The Government of India declared in 2004 that languages that met certain strict criteria could be accorded the status of a classical language of India.^[2] It was instituted by the Ministry of Culture along with the Linguistic Experts' Committee. The committee was constituted by the Government of India to consider demands for the categorisation of languages as classical languages. In 2004, Tamil became the first language to be recognised as a classical language of India. As of 2024, 11 languages have been recognised as classical languages of India.

Criteria

In the year 2004, the tentative criteria for the age of antiquity of "classical language" was assumed to be at least 1000 years of existence.^[2]

The Central Government has revised the criteria 3 times.

Criteria in 2004

The following criteria were set during the time Tamil was given the classical language status by the government of India:^[3]

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.^[3]

Criteria in 2005

The following criteria were set during the time Sanskrit was given the classical language status by the government of India:^[3]

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.^[3]

After classical language status was granted to Tamil in 2004, there have been similar demands for other languages.^[4] Subsequently Telugu (2008), Kannada (2008), Malayalam (2013) and Odia (2014) were given the status.^[3]

Criteria in 2024

The following criteria were set by the Sahitya Akademi:^[3]

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 heritage by generations of speakers.

iii. Knowledge texts, especially prose texts in addition to poetry, epigraphical and inscriptional evidence.

iv. The Classical Languages and literature could be distinct from its current form or could be discontinuous with later forms of its offshoots.^[3]

Assamese, Bengali, Marathi, Pali and Prakrit were given the classical language status in October, 2024.^[3][5]

Upon dropping the criteria for "original literary tradition", the Linguistic Expert Committee justified their decision by stating the following:^[6]

“We discussed it in detail and understood that it was a very difficult thing to prove or disprove as all ancient languages borrowed from each other, but recreated the texts in their own way. On the contrary, archaeological, historical and numismatic evidence are tangible things”

— Linguistic Expert Committee^[7]

Benefits

Academic opportunities

As per Government of India's Resolution No. 2-16/2004-US (Akademies) dated 1 November 2004, the benefits that will accrue to a language declared as a "Classical Language" are:^[8]

1. Two major international awards for scholars of eminence in Classical Indian Languages are awarded annually.
2. A Centre of Excellence for Studies in Classical Languages is set up.
3. The University Grants Commission will be requested to create, to start with at least in the Central Universities, a certain number of Professional Chairs for Classical Languages for scholars of eminence in Classical Indian Languages.^[8]

Job employment opportunities

The recognition of these classical languages will give job employment opportunities, especially in academic and research areas. Moreover, the preservation, documentation, and digitization of ancient texts of these languages will provide employment opportunities to people in archiving, translation, publishing, and digital media.^[3]

Officially recognised classical languages

Language	Earliest attestation	Language family	Language branch	Living or Dead	Date recognised
தமிழ், Tamil	Between 300 BCE–700 CE (old Tamil)[9][10][a]	Dravidian	South Dravidian	Living	12 October 2004[11]
संस्कृतम्, Sanskrit	~1500 BCE (Vedic Sanskrit)[12][13]	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan	Alive [1][14][15][16]	25 November 2005[11]
ಕನ್ನಡ, Kannada	450-1200 CE (old Kannada)[17]	Dravidian	South Dravidian	Living[18]	31 October 2008[19]
తెలుగు, Telugu	575 CE[20]		South-Central Dravidian
മലയാളം, Malayalam	~830 CE[21]		South Dravidian		23 May 2013[22]
ଓଡ଼ିଆ, Odia	Between 600-700 CE (earliest work in Apabhramsa in 8th century)[23][24][25]	Indo-European	Eastern Indo-Aryan		20 February 2014[8]
অসমীয়া, Assamese	Between 600-700 CE (earliest work in Apabhramsa in 8th century)[26][27][28][25]				3 October 2024[3]
বাংলা, Bengali	Between 600-700 CE (earliest work in Apabhramsa in 8th century)[29][30][31][25]
मराठी/𑘦𑘨𑘰𑘙𑘲, Marathi	1000 CE (old Marathi)[32][33][34][35]		Southern Indo-Aryan
𑀧𑀸𑀮𑀺/ 𐨤𐨫𐨁/ បាលី/ ပါဠိ/ପାଳି/บาลี/ පාලි/ পালি/ पालि, Pali	Between ~300-100 BCE[36]		Middle Indo-Aryan	Dead[18]
Prakrit	Between 500-100 BCE[37]

Demand from other languages

This section is about the languages which are described as "classical" by scholars but still not officially recognised as "classical" by the Government of India. These languages may either have administrative "official language" or "scheduled language" statuses, but these should not be confused with the official "classical language" status.

Meitei

Further information: Ancient Meitei literature and Meitei classical language movement

Meitei, or Manipuri, is a language of Sino-Tibetan linguistic family, having a long literary tradition.^[38][39]

Maithili

Further information: Maithili literature and Maithili music

Maithili is an Eastern Indo-Aryan language with a literary tradition that traces its roots back to the 7th and 8th centuries. The earliest known example of Maithili can be found in the Mandar Hill Sen inscription from the 7th century, which provides evidence of its ancient lineage.^[40] Additionally, the Charyapada, a collection of Buddhist mystical songs from the 8th century, also reflects the early development of Maithili.^[41] The language is predominantly spoken in the Mithila region, encompassing parts of present-day Bihar, Jharkhand and Nepal. Maithili's rich literary heritage includes epic poetry, philosophical texts, and devotional songs, such as the works of the 14th-century poet Vidyapati. Though it has a distinct script, Tirhuta, Devanagari is commonly used today. Despite its profound historical and cultural significance, Maithili has yet to be recognized as a "classical language" by the Government of India, leading to ongoing demands for such recognition.^[42][43]

Government funding

Languages	Money granted (in million pounds) in 2011-2012[44]	Money granted (in million pounds) in 2012-2013[44]
Kannada	0.072	0.25
Telugu	0.072	0.25
Tamil	1.55	0.745
Sanskrit	19.38	21.22

Politics

Besides the literary achievements, the status of classical language is granted, sometimes influenced by the political parties of the states or union territories of the respective languages where these are spoken or are based in, or the national parties, advocating for the certain languages to be accorded the demanded status.^[45]

Languages declared as "classical"	Political parties (involved in advocacy)	State/UT/National level parties	Notes/Ref.
Tamil	Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and UPA Government	Tamil Nadu and national	[46][47]
Telugu	Telugu Desam Party and UPA Government	United Andhra and National	[48]
Kannada	Bharatiya Janata Party and UPA Government	Karnataka and national	[49]
Odia	UPA Government and Biju Janata Dal	National and Odisha	[50]
Bengali	Trinamool Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party	West Bengal and national	[51]
Bengali	Amra Bangali	Tripura	[52]
Marathi	Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, Shiv Sena	Maharashtra	[53][54]
Marathi	Bharatiya Janata Party, Indian National Congress	National	[55][56][57]

Court cases against classical status

A lawyer from the Madras High Court legally challenged against the official classical status of Malayalam and Odia, in 2015.^[58] There was a long legal proceeding for almost one year. Later, the Madras High Court disposed the case against the mentioned languages' status of being officially "classical" in 2016.^[59][60][61]

See also

• Indian classical dance
• Indian classical music

Notes

1. Records of Tamil reveal three distinct historical stages: Old Tamil (c. 300 bce to 700 ce), Middle Tamil (700 to 1600 ce) and Modern Tamil (1600 ce to the present).