The Government has recognized the following 11 languages as Classical Language:-

Language	Year of Notification
Tamil	2004
Sanskrit	2005
Telugu	2008
Kannada
Malayalam	2013
Odia	2014
Marathi	2024
Pali
Prakrit
Assamese
Bengali

 

The Government of India through the Ministry of Education provides funds for protection and promotion of classical languages. The details of the funds released for classical languages may be found at Annexure-I.

Government of India has established a institute namely Central Institute of Classical Tamil (CICT), Chennai for development and promotion of Tamil language.  CICT conducts seminars, workshops, short term projects and translation of Tirukkural into India/ Foreign Languages. CICT has made braille conversion of 41 Classical texts enabling visually challenged to experience ancient Tamil literature. In collaboration with NCERT, CICT has also launched PM-e vidya Tamil channel for promotion of Tamil Language.

This information was given by Union Minister for Culture and Tourism Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.

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BY/SKT

ANNEXURE-I

YEAR-WISE AND LANGUAGE WISE FUNDS TO THE CLASSICAL LANGAUGE

                                                                                                    (Rs. In Lakhs)

	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24	2024-25
Kannada	127.50	106.50	171.75	154.50	83.50
Telugu	147.00	103.15	171.75	154.50	83.50
Malayalam	8.00	63.97	186.75	112.50	83.50
Tamil	1200.00	1200.00	1200.00	1525.00	1430.00
Odia	8.00	58.38	176.75	138.50	83.50

The Government of India promotes Sanskrit Language through three Central Universities. Funds are provided to these universities for teaching and research in Sanskrit Language leading to award of degree, diploma, certificate to students.

As for Marathi, Pali, Prakrit, Assamese, and Bengali, these languages were recognized as Classical Languages vide Gazette Notification dated 04.10.2024.

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