The Ministry of Education has approved the establishment of five Centres of Excellence dedicated to the study of Classical Assamese, Classical Bengali, Classical Marathi, Classical Pali and Classical Prakrit across five states. The initiative is aimed at strengthening academic research, digitisation, preservation and wider dissemination of India’s classical linguistic heritage.

According to an office memorandum issued by the Ministry of Education on October 1, the Centre of Excellence for Classical Assamese will be established at Tezpur University in Assam, while Visva-Bharati University in West Bengal will host the centre for Classical Bengali. The Classical Marathi centre will be set up at the Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute, a deemed university in Pune, Maharashtra.

The remaining two centres will focus on Classical Pali and Classical Prakrit. The Classical Pali Centre of Excellence will be established at the Central University of Odisha in Sunabeda, while the Central University of Gujarat at Kundhela in Vadodara will host the centre dedicated to Classical Prakrit. Together, the centres are expected to provide institutional support for research and preservation of the languages and their associated literary and cultural traditions.

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The initiative is also intended to promote digitisation and make scholarly resources related to the classical languages more accessible. By placing the centres within established higher education institutions, the government seeks to strengthen academic work around linguistic research, documentation and the preservation of historical knowledge associated with these languages.

Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi welcomed the approval of the Classical Pali Centre at the Central University of Odisha, calling it a significant step towards preserving India’s linguistic heritage. In a post on X, Majhi said the centre would strengthen the study, preservation and promotion of Pali, which has longstanding connections with India’s intellectual, spiritual and cultural traditions.

The office memorandum, signed by Shreyansh Mohan, Deputy Secretary to the Government of India, was addressed to the vice-chancellors of the respective universities and heads of the concerned institutions. The five centres will bring together academic research and preservation efforts around Assamese, Bengali, Marathi, Pali and Prakrit, further expanding institutional support for the study of India’s classical languages.

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