Prelims Perspective: What needs to be learned?

  • Criteria for declaring a classical language
  • List of Classical Languages

What needs to be known?

  • Classical Language
    • What is it?: It recognises the language’s historical significance and role as a guardian of India’s cultural and intellectual heritage.
    • Criteria for Declaring 
      • Early texts and recorded history span 1,500–2,000 years.
      • The possession of a body of ancient literature/texts.
      • “Knowledge texts, especially prose texts in addition to poetry, epigraphical and inscriptional evidence.
      • It can be distinct from its current form or could be discontinuous with later forms of its offshoots.
    • List of Classical Languages
      • Tamil, Sanskrit, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, Odia, Marathi, ​Pali, Prakrit,Assamese and Bengali.
PRELIMS PYQ

1. Which one of the following was given classical language status recently?          (2015)                                                                                                                     

(a)  Odia 

(b)  Konkani

(c)   Bhojpuri 

(d)  Assamese

Source: The Hindu

 

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