The Union government has sanctioned five Centres of Excellence for the classical languages Assamese, Bengali, Marathi, Pali and Prakrit. They will support research and help preserve, document and digitise literary heritage. Tezpur University in Assam will host the Assamese centre, Visva-Bharati University in West Bengal the Bengali one, Deccan College in Pune the Marathi one, the Central University of Odisha the Pali centre and the Central University of Gujarat the Prakrit centre. India has 11 classical languages. Recognition requires recorded history of 1,500–2,000 years, a large body of old literature, a literary tradition of its own and a classical form that differs from its modern versions.