Oriya may soon be conferred with the classical language status. The linguistic committee of the Sahitya Academy recommended the culture ministry for the coveted tag for the language after the state government officials presented documentary evidence on the rich literary heritage of the language.
The five-member panel praised the content of the report submitted by the state government in support of its claims and forwarded the report to the culture ministry. If accepted by the Union Cabinet, Oriya will become the first language from the Indo-Aryan linguistic group to get the tag. The classical status will get Central funds for those promoting the language, bringing about a one-time grant of `100 crores for research and development of the language along with a `5-crore grant every year.
Earlier this year, Malayalam was conferred with the classical language status.
According to the rules laid down by the government, a language can be accorded classical status if it has a history over a period of 1500-2000 years, has a body of ancient literature/texts which is considered a valuable heritage by generations of speakers. The criteria for declaration of a language as classical also say that the literary tradition should be original and not borrowed from another speech community and classical language and literature being distinct from modern. Classical language has already been conferred upon Tamil (2004), Sanskrit (2005), Telugu (2008) and Kannada (2008). Experts noted that Oriya had a unique structure and does not have any resemblance with other languages like Bengali or Assamese as earlier believed. Senior officials in the ministry said that the decision is yet to be taken.