Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved to confer the status of classical language to Marathi, Pali, Prakrit, Assamese, and Bengali languages. The classical languages serve as a custodian of India’s ancient cultural heritage, embodying the essence of each community’s historical and cultural milestone.

The government had decided to create a new category of languages as “classical languages” on October 12, 2004, declaring Tamil as a classical language. Among the criteria for the status of classical language are the high antiquity of its early texts, recorded history over a thousand years, and a body of ancient literature. The literary tradition of the language must be original and not borrowed from another speech community. The inclusion of languages as classical languages will create significant employment opportunities, particularly in academic and research fields. The preservation, documentation, and digitisation of ancient texts in these languages will generate jobs in archiving, translation, publishing, and digital media.