Five New Centres of Excellence for Classical Assamese, Bengali, Marathi, Pali and Prakrit
The Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, has approved five Centres of Excellence (CoEs) for the study of five classical languages: Assamese, Bengali, Marathi, Pali and Prakrit.
Each centre will be set up at a higher education institution:
Classical Assamese: Tezpur University, Assam
Classical Bengali: Visva-Bharati University, West Bengal
Classical Marathi: Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute (Deemed to be University), Pune, Maharashtra
Classical Pali: Central University of Odisha, Odisha
Classical Prakrit: Central University of Gujarat, Gujarat
The centres will focus on four areas: advanced research and scholarship, preservation and digitisation (turning old texts into digital form) of literary resources, wider spread of knowledge about these languages, and building regional research hubs in the five states.
These five languages got classical status from the Union Cabinet on 3 October 2024. A dedicated centre of excellence is one of the main benefits promised with that status.
Classical Languages of India
A classical language is a special honour the Government of India gives to an Indian language that is very old and has a long, rich and original body of literature. Today India has 11 classical languages. The status brings central support for research, scholarships, awards and dedicated study centres for that language.
A Centre of Excellence is one of the main benefits a language gets after it is declared classical. Two years after the October 2024 decision, the Ministry of Education has now named host universities for all five newest classical languages, spread across Assam, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Odisha and Gujarat.
Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution
The Eighth Schedule is a list in the Constitution of the languages officially recognised for certain constitutional purposes. It has 22 languages today, up from 14 in 1950. A language can be added only by a constitutional amendment. Being in this list and being a classical language are two completely separate things.
Of the five languages getting new centres, three (Assamese, Bengali, Marathi) are both Eighth Schedule and classical languages. Pali and Prakrit get central support for their study only through their classical status, since they are outside the Eighth Schedule.
- Five Centres of Excellence approved by the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education (October 2026)
- Classical Assamese: Tezpur University (Assam)
- Classical Bengali: Visva-Bharati University (West Bengal)
- Classical Marathi: Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute, Pune (Maharashtra)
- Classical Pali: Central University of Odisha
- Classical Prakrit: Central University of Gujarat
- Classical status to these five languages: Union Cabinet, 3 October 2024; total classical languages now 11
- Classical language criteria revised by the Linguistic Experts Committee (Sahitya Akademi) on 25 July 2024
- Pali and Prakrit: classical, but not in the Eighth Schedule (22 languages)