Indian Regional Languages

Sanskrit was the official administrative and court language of Ashoka's empire (3rd century BCE Mauryan period). While Ashoka's edicts were also inscribed in Prakrit (including Pali variants) and Greek/ Aramaic for different regions, Sanskrit remained the language of the elite, administration, and court proceedings in the heartland.

Buddha taught in Pali, the vernacular language of the common people in northern India during his time, not Sanskrit which was the elite scholarly language. This made his teachings accessible to all, regardless of caste. Hindi and Urdu didn't exist in their modern forms then.

Sanskrit was the official court language of the Gupta Empire, often called the Golden Age of Sanskrit literature. This period saw great flourishing of Sanskrit works by scholars like Kalidasa. Prakrit languages were used by common people, but Sansrit dominated official and literary circles.

The Aryans spoke Sanskrit, which was the language of the Vedas and classical Indian literature. Sanskrit is an ancient Indo-Aryan language and the root of many modern Indian languages. Brahmi and Pali were later scripts/languages used for Buddhist and Jain texts.

The UAE RTA offers driving tests in languages commonly spoken by its large South Asian workforce - Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, and Bengali. Kannada is primarily spoken in Karnataka state and is not among the languages offered by UAE transport authority.

Indo-Aryan languages (Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, etc.) are spoken by about 75% of India's population as their first language, making it the largest language family. Dravidian languages (Tamil, Telugu, etc.) are second with about 20%, while Austro-Asiatic languages (Santali, Mundari) have much fewer speakers.

Persian was the official court language and administrative language of the Mughal Empire. The Mughals, though of Turkic-Mongol origin, adopted Persian culture and language as it was the language of sophistication and administration in medieval India. Arabic was primarily a religious language, while Urdu and Marathi were not court languages.

Bodo is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken primarily in the state of Assam, particularly in the Bodoland Territorial Region districts. It is one of the scheduled languages of India and the official language of the Bodoland territorial administration.

English is not included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, though it has official language status. Konkani, Sindhi, and Kashmiri are all scheduled languages. The Eighth Schedule currently lists 22 languages recognized by the Constitution.

Urdu is the official language of Jammu and Kashmir as per the state constitution. Kashmiri and Dogri are recognized regional languages spoken by significant populations. Urdu serves as the administrative language and is widely understood across the Kashmir Valley and Jammu region. This provision was included to accommodate the linguistic diversity of the state.

According to the Census of India, Bengali (Bangla) is the second most spoken language in the country after Hindi. It is the primary language of West Bengal and is also the national language of Bangladesh, making it the second most spoken in the wider subcontinent.

Punjabi is the official language of the state of Punjab in India and is written in the Gurmukhi script. Devnagari is used for Hindi, and the Roman script is used for English.

Hindi is the language in which the largest number of newspapers and periodicals are published in India. This is due to the large population of Hindi speakers across the 'Hindi Belt' states. English follows as the second most common language for newspaper publication.

Hindi is the language in which the largest number of newspapers and periodicals are published in India, reflecting its status as the most widely spoken language in the country.