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.
