Pali, accorded the status of ‘Classical language’ in India

Pali, the language in which the The Buddha gave his sermon, has been recognized and accorded the status of Classical language by the Indian government.  

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed happiness that this year’s Abhidhamma Divas was special as the language, Pali, in which The Buddha gave his sermons has been recognized and accorded the status of Classical language this month by the Government of India.   

Therefore, he added, that today’s occasion was even more special. The Prime Minister remarked that the honour accorded to Pali by recognition as a classical language was a tribute to the great legacy and heritage of The Buddha. He added that Abhidhamma is contained in the Dhamma and to understand the true essence of Dhamma, it was necessary to have knowledge of the Pali language. Explaining the various meanings of Dhamma, Shri Modi said Dhamma meant the message and doctrine of The Buddha, the solutions to questions related to human existence, the path to peace for human race, the eternal teachings of The Buddha and a firm assurance for the welfare of entire humanity. He added that the entire world was being constantly enlightened by Buddha’s Dhamma.   

In a major decision, the Union Cabinet of India approved giving the status of ‘Classical language’ to five more languages - Marathi, Bengali, Prakrit and Assamese are the other languages. With this cabinet decision, the number of languages that have the status will nearly double from six to 11.   

The languages that had the tag earlier were Tamil, Sanskrit, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Odia. Tamil was granted the status in 2004 and the last language to get it was Odia, in 2014.