Odia language is older than Sanskrit as it is more than 2,000-year-old. We proved it before the linguistic committee held in New Delhi,” said Rajya Sabha member Rama Chandra Khuntia on Sunday.
“We presented a book consisting of more than 450 pages with irrefutable photographs and proofs, for which Odia got the status as the fifth classical Indian languages,” said Khuntia, who played a pioneering role for securing this recognition for Odia.
A special session of the Jajpur District Writers’ Conference was held here in honour of Khuntia and Dr Subrat Kumar Prusty, a linguistic researcher, for their contributions to the Odia classical status movement with eminent linguist Dr Debi Prasanna Pattanaik at the forefront.
Khuntia said the next effort would aim at establishing an Odia University. He urged the Government to use Odia as the State’s official language for all purposes without further delay. The others who were honoured for their contributions to Odia literature were Haladhar Dhir, Mamtaj Ali and Sumitra Rout.
District Writers’ Conference president Dr Rudra Narayan Prusty presided over the meeting and secretary Dayanidhi Nayak introduced the guests. The others who spoke on the occasion included Korai Mandal Sahitya Sansad secretary Suryamani Khuntia, eminent poet Nanda Kishore Singh and columnist Purusottam Biswal. leading story writer Achuytananda Pati was the guest of the honour.