Odia Gets Classical Language Status Thursday Feb 20,2014

Odia on Thursday Feb 20,2014 became the 6th language in India to get “classical language’’ status after the UPA II Union Cabinet conceded a long-pending demand for putting it in the same league as -

• Tami(2004)
• Sanskrit(2005)
• Telugu and Kannada(2008)
• Malayalam(2013)

Odia is billed as the first language from the Indo-Aryan linguistic group and the case for making it a classical language was also premised on the fact that it has no resemblance to Hindi, Sanskrit, Bengali and Telugu.

Once a language is declared classical, it gets financial assistance for setting up a centre of excellence for the study of that language and also opens up an avenue for two major awards for scholars of eminence. Besides, the University Grants Commission can be requested to create – to begin with at least in Central Universities – a certain number of professional chairs for classical languages for scholars of eminence in the language.

The proposal was moved by the Culture Ministry

The criteria for declaring a language as classical mandates high antiquity of its early texts/recorded history over a period of 1,500-2,000 years, a body of ancient literature/texts which is considered a valuable heritage by generations of speakers and a literary tradition that is original and not borrowed from another speech community

Note

1)In 2004 Govt of India declared that languages that met certain requirements could be accorded the status of a "Classical Language in India"

2)Languages declared to be classical so far are -
Tami(2004)
Sanskrit(2005)
Telugu and Kannada(2008)
Malayalam(2013)

3)The Linguistic Experts' Committee, which has been constituted by the Government of India to consider demands for categorization of languages as Classical Languages, in its meeting held on July 23, 2013 has recommended Odiya to be declared as classical language