CHENNAI: Following protests from political parties, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has included a Master's degree in all classical languages including Tamil as a minimum qualification for getting admission to the two-year post-graduate diploma in archaeology course for 2020-2022 offered by Pt Deendayal Upadhyay Institute of Archaeology.
The original notification for admission prescribed a PG degree only in Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit, Arabic, or Persian but ignored Tamil and other classical languages. The fresh advertisement issued by the ASI has modified the guideline as follows: "All the classical languages notified by the Government of India - Tamil, Sanskrit, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, Odia and Pali, Prakrit, Arabic or Persian, etc.,"
Political leaders in Tamil Nadu opposed this and demanded that a PG degree in Tamil should also be included as a minimum qualification. Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, on Thursday, wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this regard. He pointed out that Tamil was the first language in India officially recognised as a classical language in 2004 followed by Sanskrit in 2005. To show the antiquity of the Tamil language, the Chief Minister pointed out that of the 48,000 inscriptions in all languages published so far, Tamil Nadu alone has more than 28,000 inscriptions.
In view of these facts, he said the guidelines for admission to the archaeology courses should include a PG degree in the Tamil language as one of the minimum qualifications.
CM THANKS PM
Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami today thanked the Prime Minister for latter's immediate response to his request to include PG degree in Tamil as one of the minimum qualifications for the archaeology course.
"I appreciate the prompt response and once again thank you for the immediate action in the matter," he added.