Kashmiri deserves to be declared classical language: Experts

Kashmiri being the oldest language of north India, deserves the status of classical language, said the experts at a discussion held at University of Jammu here.
The panel discussion on the subject was organised by National Book Trust in collaboration with Jammu University on the sidelines of a three-day exhibition of books which took off today.
The exhibition has been put up by NBT at Dhanwantri Library .
"Kashmiri language has a rich treasure of literature spread over more than seven hundred years in published form. The history of Kashmiri poetry is older than that of English language and this language has produced poets of international standard like Lalded and Sheikhul Alam in fourteenth century AD, they said.

"The poetic vision and expression of these saint poets of Kashmir is of high standard which suggests that it must have a long tradition and legacy of literary expression behind it," they added.
According to Dr Aziz Hajini Coordinator of Centre for Sheikhul Alam Studies University of Kashmir, "Kashmiri language has distinction of getting the prestigious Jnanpith award bestowed on living poet Prof Rahman Rahi in the year 2006. It is taught at university and college levels and in the recent past it has been included in the school curriculum as the compulsory subject.
"It is the need of the hour to prepare knowledge books in the language so as to facilitate its students and learners to get more and more knowledge through their mother tongue," he added.

Prof O N Koul, renowned linguists from Delhi said that the grammatical structure of Kashmiri is similar to that of European classical language Yiddish and so many European scholars are taking keen interest in Kashmiri language and literature.