Classical language status to Marathi under consideration: Culture Minister

A proposal for granting classical language status to Marathi is under active consideration, Union Culture Minister Prahlad Patel informed the Parliament on Tuesday. In a reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Patel pointed out that the Madras High Court had disposed of writ petitions and declined to interfere in the matter.

"The proposal is again under active consideration in consultation with other ministries and commissions of linguistic experts through (the) Sahitya Akademi," the minister said. As of now, six languages -- Tamil, Telugu, Sanskrit, Kannada, Malayalam and Odia -- have been given the status of classical languages.

The criteria adopted by the government to determine the eligibility of a language for classical status includes its recorded history over a period of 1500-2000 years, the body of ancient literature, whether its literary tradition is original and not borrowed from another speech community and other yardsticks.