- Why in news
- On 3 October 2026, the Ministry of Education approved five Centres of Excellence for Classical Assamese, Bengali, Marathi, Pali and Prakrit at five higher educational institutions.
- What it is
- Centres of Excellence for Classical Languages are institutional hubs for research, preservation and digitisation of the literature of languages given classical status. The Government of India grants classical status to languages with ancient, rich and independent literary traditions. The five languages here received the status in October 2024.
- Approving body
- The Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, approved the five Centres.
- Where the Centres are
- Assamese at Tezpur University, Bengali at Visva-Bharati, Marathi at Deccan College (Pune), Pali at Central University of Odisha, Prakrit at Central University of Gujarat.
- Focus areas
- The Centres will work on research and scholarship, preservation and digitisation, wider dissemination, and strengthening regional academic ecosystems.
- Spread across States
- The Centres lie in Assam, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Odisha and Gujarat.
- Classical language status
- Before 2024, six languages had classical status: Tamil, Sanskrit, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Odia. Marathi, Pali, Prakrit, Assamese and Bengali were added in October 2024, making eleven.
Don’t confuse with Classical language status vs Eighth Schedule: Classical status is an executive recognition for languages with ancient literary heritage. The Eighth Schedule lists languages recognised in the Constitution (22 languages). Pali and Prakrit are classical but not in the Eighth Schedule.
Don’t confuse with Centres of Excellence vs Central Institute of Classical Tamil: The Central Institute of Classical Tamil is a dedicated institute for Tamil. The new Centres are university-based units for five other languages.
Art and culture in the news: Prelims tests UNESCO listings, GI tags and where a site is.
Why it matters
- Gives institutional backing to research and preservation of ancient texts and manuscripts.
- Spreads classical language scholarship across regions and strengthens universities.
Problems
- Few trained scholars and limited manuscript expertise in languages like Pali and Prakrit.
- Digitisation needs sustained funding, standards and care of fragile manuscripts.
Way forward
- Provide steady funding, fellowships and posts for scholars and young researchers.
- Link the Centres with the National Mission for Manuscripts and open digital archives.
Put in your answer
Institutional support for classical languages: Five Centres of Excellence at universities in five States will support research, digitisation and dissemination of classical language heritage.
- 2015Mains GS1 · Q1Comment on Indian civilisation's unbroken culture versus Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece.
- 2018Mains GS1 · Q1Discuss the need for safeguarding India's art heritage.
- 2015Prelims Q75Which language was recently given classical language status: Odia, Konkani, Bhojpuri, Assamese?
UPSC’s own questions that come close to this issue, from our Prelims and Mains banks.
No practice question for this one; the card may still help an answer. Why: A lasting culture topic with a list of centres and languages. Culture gave only 8 of 327 Prelims questions and almost never reaches Mains, so no practice question.
Worth revising until Prelims 2028: most news questions come within two years of the event.