Five Centres of Excellence Set Up for Classical Languages

The Union Education Ministry has approved five new *Centres of Excellence* (CoEs) dedicated to the study of Classical Assamese, Classical Bengali, Classical Marathi, Classical Pali and Classical Prakrit, marking a significant step toward preserving India's linguistic and literary heritage.

According to an official statement, the initiative, driven by the Ministry's Department of Higher Education, aims to provide dedicated institutional support for advanced academic research, systematic preservation, and digitisation of classical texts, along with wider dissemination of knowledge in these languages.

Each centre has been assigned to a specific institution based on regional and academic relevance. The Classical Assamese CoE will be established at Tezpur University in Assam, while Classical Bengali will be housed at Visva-Bharati University in West Bengal. Classical Marathi studies will be centred at the Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute in Pune, Classical Pali at the Central University of Odisha, and Classical Prakrit at the Central University of Gujarat.

This move underscores the government's continued emphasis on safeguarding India's classical language traditions through focused academic infrastructure.