UPSC Articles
Classical Languages
Part of: GS Prelims and GS-II- Polity
In News:
- Rajya Sabha passes bill to grant the status of Central universities to three deemed Sanskrit universities:
- Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan in Delhi
- Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeeth in Delhi
- Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeeth in Tirupati.
- Currently there are six languages that enjoy the ‘Classical’ status in India:
- 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.
- The guidelines for declaring a language as ‘Classical’ are:
- High antiquity of its early texts/recorded history over a period of 1500-2000 years
- A body of ancient literature/texts, which is considered a valuable heritage by generations of speakers;
- The literary tradition be original and not borrowed from another speech community
- The classical language and literature being distinct from modern, there may also be a discontinuity between the classical language and its later forms or its offshoots.
Places in News:
- Pakke Tiger Reserve – a biodiversity hotspot of the eastern Himalayas is located in Arunachal Pradesh
- The Sundarban National Park is located in the south-east of Calcutta in the District of West Bengal and forms part of the Gangetic Delta.
