New Delhi, Feb 2: The government sanctioned a budget of Rs 16.97 crore in 2025-26 for promotion and preservation of 11 classical languages, Minister for Culture and Tourism Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said in a written reply in Lok Sabha on Monday.
He said the Sanskrit language is promoted through three Central Universities – Central Sanskrit University, New Delhi; Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri National Sanskrit University, New Delhi and National Sanskrit University, Tirupati. The Minister identified the 11 classic languages as Tamil, Sanskrit, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Odia, Marathi, Assamese, Bangla, Pali and Prakrit. Out of these, Odia, Marathi, Assamese, Bangla, Pali and Prakrit were recognised as classical languages in 2024.
While Bangla is the most widely spoken classical language with 9.72 crore people, Sanskrit is spoken by the least number of people at just 24,000. The Minister said as per the Census of India 2011 (Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India), Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Telugu and Tamil are the top five most spoken languages in the country.
In another reply, the Minister said Gyan Bharatam, announced during Union Budget 2025-26, is a flagship initiative of the Ministry of Culture (MoC) aimed at unearthing, safeguarding and preserving India’s vast manuscript heritage. More than 7.5 lakh manuscripts have been digitised under Gyan Bharatam, out of which 1.29 lakh manuscripts are available on the Gyan Bharatam Portal, he said.
Aligned with the national vision of Viksit Bharat 2047, the initiative seeks to harmonise cultural preservation with human capital development, ensuring that India’s ancient wisdom continues to inspire generations to come, he said. To support the initiative, the Standing Finance Committee (SFC) has sanctioned Rs 491.66 crore for the period 2025-2031.
This initiative focuses on five verticals – Survey and Cataloguing, Conservation and Capacity Building, Technology and Digitisation, Linguistics and Translation and Research, Publication, and Outreach, he said. Gyan Bharatam has been mandated to establish a nationwide network of Cluster Centres (CCs) and Independent Centres (ICs) across the country.
IANS
