Centre approves Marathi, Pali, Prakrit, Assamese and Bengali as classical languages
New Delhi [India], October 3 (ANI): The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved to confer the status of classical language to Marathi, Pali, Prakrit, Assamese, and Bengali languages. The Government of India decided to create a new category of languages as “classical languages” on October 12, 2004, declaring Tamil as a classical language. The government also set a criterion for the status of classical language that the language must be of high antiquity in its early texts/recorded history over a thousand years, a body of ancient literature/texts that is considered a valuable heritage by generations of speakers, and the literary tradition