Odia was assigned the status of a classical language in February 2014. With this, the number of classical languages in India became

With Odia recognised in 2014, the number of classical languages became six.

Three is far short of the count after Odia's inclusion.

Four does not reflect all the languages recognised by then.

Five leaves out the sixth language added with Odia.

The earlier five were Tamil, Sanskrit, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.

Classical status is granted on criteria of antiquity and literary tradition.