The Centres will focus on four broad areas - providing dedicated institutional platforms for advanced research, scholarly work and academic engagement; preservation and digitisation; wider dissemination of Classical Language heritage; and strengthening regional academic ecosystems. (File Photo)The Ministry of Education Saturday approved the establishment of five Centres of Excellence (CoEs) for studies in five Classical languages, namely Assamese, Bengali, Marathi, Pali and Prakrit.“The establishment of these five Centres marks a significant step towards strengthening the institutional ecosystem for the study, research and preservation of India’s Classical Languages,” the Ministry said in a statementThe Centres will focus on four broad areas – providing dedicated institutional platforms for advanced research, scholarly work and academic engagement; preservation and digitisation; wider dissemination of Classical Language heritage; and strengthening regional academic ecosystems.The Centre of Excellence for classical Assamese will be established at Tezpur University, Assam; for classical Bengali at Visva-Bharati University, West Bengal; for classical Marathi at Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute, Pune, Maharashtra; for classical Pali at Central University of Odisha, Odisha; and for classical Prakrit at Central University of Gujarat, Gujarat.The initiative reinforces the government’s efforts to preserve and promote India’s rich linguistic and literary heritage while strengthening institutions of higher education as centres of research and scholarship, the Ministry’s statement further read.