Classical Languages of India 

The idea of Classicism had its origin in Europe. The Government tracks the following criteria to define the eligibility of language to be considered for classification as “classical language”:

• Extraordinary antiquity of its early transcripts or verified history over a period of 1500-2000 years.
• A body of ancient literature or texts, which is considered a valuable heritage by generations of speakers.
• The literary tradition should be unique and not hired from another language community.
• The classical language and literature being diverse from modern, there may also be a discontinuity among the classical language and its later forms or its sprouts.

The Ministry of Culture provides the guidelines regarding Classical languages.

Key Facts :

• Tamil (declared in 2004), Sanskrit (2005), Kannada (2008), Telugu (2008), Malayalam (2013), and Odia (2014).
• All the Classical Languages are listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. 

Classical Languages

• In 2004, Government of India declared Tamil as the Classical Language of India.
• In 2005, right after Tamil, the government declared Sanskrit as Classical Language of India. These two languages are undeniably parental sources for several languages belonging to the Indo-European family and the Dravidian family of language groups.
• The government gave the classical language status to Kannada and Telugu in 2008.
• Malayalam was declared as a classical language in 2013 and in 2014, Odiya was also given the status of the Classical language.

Once a language is notified as a Classical language, the Human Resource and Development Ministry provides certain benefits to promote it:

• Two major annual international awards for scholars of eminence in classical Indian languages.
• A Centre of Excellence for studies in Classical Languages is set up.
• The University Grants Commission is requested to create, to start with at least in the Central Universities, a certain number of Professional Chairs for the Classical Languages so declare.