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ANCIENT HISTORY OF ANDHRAS
TELUGU - A
COSMOPOLITAN CULTURE
TELUGU TAMIL KANNADA
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Over 85% of the population of Andhra Pradesh speaks
Telugu, called the Italian of the East for its sweetness. However, there are
other communities who speak different languages. Tamil is widely spoken in the extreme south region, and
on the border of Karnataka there are pockets of areas in which Kannada is
spoken. In Hyderabad there are a large numbers of Urdu speakers who make
up about 7% of AP's population. Other major languages spoken
in the city are Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, Sindhi.
ANCIENT HISTORY OF
ANDHRAS
It is impossible to confirm the origin of a culture and the
date of its origin. Different tribes, classes, and societies
gradually
combined over a period of time and a transformed society
evolved.
Andhra community is one of the ancient communities of India. One
can encounter several tales about Andhras in epics like
Mahabharatam and Ramayanam, in great Puranas, and Budhdhist
Jataka tales.
Andhras and Kalingas (ka'Limgulu) supported the Kauravas
during the battle between Kauravas and Pandavas (the Bharatayudhdham). Sahadeva defeated the kingdoms of Pandya, Dravida,
Odhra, Kerala, Andhra, and Kalinga while performing the
Rajasooya yajna. This is depicted in the Mahabharatam.
Chanoora (ca'NooruDu) was killed by Srikrishna in Madhura.
Harivamsapuranam corroborates the fact that Chanoora was the
king of Karoosa Desa (karooSa dESam) (on the North side of
Vindhya and on the North banks of Yamuna river) and was an
Andhra (Andhrudu) too.
Ramayanam depicts an interesting tale. Viswamitra condemned
the "Naramedha Yagam", freed Sunassepu (SunaSSEpu,
the
yajna paSuvu), and adopted him as his son. Viswamitra's
children disliked it and were cursed.
Then
Viswamitra's children migrated towards east and south. It is
understood from this tale that these children of Viswamitra
were
Andhras (a'mdhrulu).
A tribe called "Andhras" arrived at the banks of
Yamuna river during the Mahabharata war (1500 BC) which is described
in the epic.
During Mahabharata war, several kings of different tribes fought in
the battle.
Several
thousands of soldiers lost their lives. Kauravas were
destroyed. Innumerable number of tiny kingdoms mushroomed.
Locusts destroyed crops on the banks of Ganges and Yamuna
rivers. People inhabiting those regions migrated 300 miles
away to south. Chandogyopanishat (Ca'mdOgyOpanishad) confirms
this. Iatreya (aitarEya bra'hmaNam) Brahmanam tells us
that Andhras lived on the south side of Vindhya along with
Pundrapulinda Sabara Mootibas (punDrapulimda Sabara
mootibulu). Chandogyopanishad and Itareya Brahmanam were
written in 1000 BC.
Andhras were nomads for several centuries. Some tribes
(classes) migrated and others did not want to do so and
remained in their older settlements. During 700 BC some Andhra tribes
inhabited the Salvadesa (sa'lvadESamu) on the banks of Yamuna
River. The tale of Apastambarushi (a'pastambaRushi) explains
this. Apastamba rules (a'pastamba gruhya sootra'lu) have been
widely in practice among Andhra Brahmin families today. A
single Rushi was the teacher (a'ca'rya) of each tribe.
Apastamba
was one such teacher. Apastamba wrote these rules in
Salvadesam on the banks of Yamuna river. After Apastamba's
death the
Andhra tribes crossed the Vindhya mountains, reached the
South, and merged with the other Andhra tribes.
Some of those Andhras who came to the south settled on the
west side of Vindhya mountains (present Northern regions of
Hyderabad). Another tribe crossed the Eastern Ghats over
Orissa and reached the Kalinga Desam. "Serivanijo"
Jataka tale explains that Andhras built the "ANDHAKAPURAM" on
the banks of "Tel" (tEl) river.
Jataka tales were written during 200-250 BC. Tel river is a
subriver of Mahanadi in Orissa. This confirms that one of the
Andhra tribes migrated this way. The people in this tribe are
Kalingas (ka'Limgulu). The books cited above describe the Andhras and Kalingas as two different branches of a single
tribe. Sometimes these two words (Andhras and Kalingas) are
used
as synonyms interchangeably.
Andhra tribes established relationships with Naga, Yaksha, and
Dravida tribes of Vindhya mountains who already were living
there then. Telugu, Tamil, and Kannada are Dravidian
languages. Rayalaseema was the first settlement of Tenugu
(identify here!
TENUGU is used here) people. Later Telangana was occupied. The
name "Tenugu" transformed into "Telugu".
From "Telugu"
words like "Telagalu", "Telangana",
"Telanganyulu" (a subsect of Andhra Brahmins), and
"Teligiri" originated. A tribe called "Tailang" (taila'ng) in Burma is proposed to be
related to Telugu people.
Tenugu (tenugu) is the meaning for those who travel towards
south. In Tamil and Kannada "ten" means south side (dakshinadikku).
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TELUGU - A
COSMOPOLITAN CULTURE
My brother and I were often interested in tracing the origins
of Telugu culture - not to prove its supremacy over other
cultures,
but simply to understand what made the Andhras a large
cultural group different from the other major Indian cultures.
So the
first question is : When did the Telugu people become a
separate linguistic cultural group & when could they be
seen distinct
from the other cultural groups ? History as observed from
stone inscriptions dates this to around 500 BC. So it must be
the case
that Telugu usage without being grossly incomprehensible to a
Telugu speaking person of today must have existed at least by
1000 BC. Who were all the people speaking Telugu around 1000
BC ? Can we say that all the region marked as 'Andhra
Pradesh' today was speaking Telugu ? The answer is not so easy
to be stated. We were more than fascinated when we set out
to understand the origins of the Telugu culture.
An eminent 20 th century linguist called Ganti Somayaji Jogi
had written a voluminous treatise tracing the origins of
several
telugu words in Tamil. My brother, however, notes that there
is a larger body of Telugu usage that does not intersect with
any of
the other major languages of India. The infusion of large
volume of Sanskrit into Telugu is relatively a more modern
event in the
history of the Telugu language. Also, telugu has distinct
linguistic patterns that definitely do not belong to Tamil, in
addition to a
large body of diction which is specific to Telugu. He observed
that somewhat more primary 'document' of the usage of ancient
Telugu are in the family names of Telugu people and in the
names of the villages and towns of Andhra. These are mostly
specific
to telugu people and also a large source for making convincing
etymological constructions for telugu diction.
More reflection on the origins of Telugu led us to believe
that Telugu is not the language of any one specific dominant
people of
the Eastern India, but the confluence of the individual
languages of a dozen-to-twenty big tribal groups living in
Eastern India. It is difficult of date this process (which must have continued
for a period of 1-2 millennia) - safe it put it somewhere
before
3000BC. Thus a major language group such as the Telugu could
not begun from a single monolithic group. I can compare it
only with the formation of a river. A large river as we see it
in the plains has a very cognizable course, identity and
shape. But its
origin is too complex to be traced. Drops of rain water that
precipitate in higher up rocks and mountains flow through the
crevices of rocks and mountains and join together to form
minor streams. These streams slowly merge at the foothills to
form
smaller rivers, which merge into the larger river in the
plateaus and finally become the immense river in the plains.
The river has
no simple identity or nomenclature at the point(??) of its
formation. So can not one localize in time and space the
development
of a major culture such as of the Telugu people.
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TELUGU TAMIL KANNADA
tala talai tale
nela nila nila'
puli puli puli, huli
Uru Ur Ur
magava'Du magas magan
uppu uppu uppu
pappu parupu papu
paTTi paRRu paDe
ekku ERu ERu
The nominative case (karta), object of a verb (karma) and the
verb are some what in a sequence in Telugu sentence
construction. The same trend (pattern) is seen in other
Dravidian languages. Sanskrit does not follow this rule.
"Vibhakti" (case
of a noun) and "pratyayamulu" (an affix to roots and
words forming derivs. and inflections) depict the ancient
nature and
progression of the language. The "Vibhaktis" of
Telugu language "Du, mu, vu, lu" etc are different
from those in Sanskrit and
have been in the usage for a long time. Based on these above
features, linguists unanimously classify Telugu language as a
member of the Dravidian languages.
Satavahana kings' official language was "Prakrut".
Prakrut was also the language used by kings those days - Royal
Language.
For the first time Telugu words can be observed in the
Ikshavakula inscriptions after Satavahana's rule. The
Nagarjuna Hill
inscriptions of 250 AD contain Telugu words like
"na'gamna", "viiramna", and
"maha'talavara". "talavara" is a Telugu
word in
"maha'talavara". "tala'ri" or
"talavara" means "gra'ma'dhika'ri" (head
of the village or town). In Tamil, "talaiva'r" means
"peddaadhipati" (big boss). This Telugu word was combined with
a Sanskrit word "maha'". Telugu language spoken by
people contains
some original words and some sanskritized words (as in
inscriptions). People those days used to speak Telugu and
rulers spoke
Prakrut. The following is from the inscriptions of Pallava
King, Sivaskandavarma:
"ka'nciipuratO yuvamaha ra'jO Ba'rada'yasa gotto
palava'nam navaKandavammO dharmaKDe va'ptam a'napayati.
andhapatiiyaga'mO..... viriparam amhEhi Udaka'dim sampadato
Etasa ga'mana virivarasa nava bamhadEya pariha'lO vitarama."
The meaning of the above inscription: The Viripara (Epparru)
village of Andhra is being donated by Sivaskandavarma.
The inscription of Chalkya Jayasimha Vallabha (in Telugu) is
the following:
"jayasimhavallaBa maha'ra'ju la'kun pravardhama'na
vijayara'jya samvatsarambuLa - eNumbOdi anmENNa amminpooNNamana'NNum mla'vinDi ra'jula muTlu kalimuDira'jul
mla'vinDi samudrarakai na'ku baNisEsina kalci viiRuruRla maddikadu mooTiki vitaRti Uttarambuna pulOmbuna CeRuvu paDuma'Ri
kOTan eRRumBOdi puTlu aRla paTTu sEnuta'Rii tOmTaa'yu paDuva'rambu icciri."
The above two inscriptions depict the differences between
Telugu and Prakrut languages.
The ancient inscriptions contain the names of villages ending
in a word "Uru" e.g. "kooDoorE",
"ELoorE". The word "Uru" is
close to the word "Ur" in the Southern languages.
"Elooru" is the other name for "ELoorE".
"kODooru" in Krishna District is the
other name for "kooDoorE". These village names
confirm the relationship of the Telugu with the Dravidian
languages.
Telugu language spoken by the Dravidians, Yakshas, and the
Nagas was influenced by Desi, Sanskrit, and Prakrut. Sanskrit
and Prakrut belong to the same group. Literary language is
Sanskrit and spoken one is Prakrut. There is no difference in
basic
vocabulary or style of sentence construction among Sanskrit
and Prakrut. The preachers of Buddhism wrote their books in
Prakrut for easy understanding. The language of Andhra was not
Prakrut. While writing Bruhatkadha, Gunadya said the
following:
"samskruta, pra'kruta, dESi Ba'sha lanu parityajimci nEnu
paiSaci Ba'shalO bruhatkadhanu vra'stunna'nu."
Till today, languages called "bra'huyi" in
Beloochisthan and "ka'nDu" "ma'rTu",
"Oreya'n" in Vindhya exist. These languages
belong to family of Dravidian languages. Dravidians inhabited
North India prior to Aryan aggression. On the banks of river
Sindhu, Aryans created the Harappa and Mahenjadaro cultures.
Eventhough Dravidians came and settled in South India, their
relatives (some tribes) still remained in the North India.
Their languages belong to the family of Dravidian languages.
"Papai" in
Afganisthan, "shiina" in Kashmir, and
"bra'huyi" in Beloocisthan share similarities
(resemblances) with Dravidian languages. All
these languages are classified in "Dardik Class" of
languages by linguistics experts.
"dESi" of Andhras belongs to this class of languages
(Dardik). Before settlement in South India, Andhras lived in
the Vindhya
for some time. Hill tribes of Vindhyas still speak Dravidian
languages like "ka'nDu", "ma'rTu", and
"oriya'n". Before arriving at
the banks of Ganges and Jamuna, Andhras might have visited
Beloochisthan, Afganisthan, and Kashmir. This is what
historians
propose.
Paisachi is an offshoot of Desi. What was the nationality of
Gunadya? Was he a Kashmiri or Nepali or an Andhra? This is a
debate among historians and linguistics experts. Desi was the
ancient language of Kashmiris and Nepalis.
Andhras' Desi Tenugu and Telugu of Nagas and Yakshas combined
together into one language. Both belong to the Dardik class
of Dravidian languages. That is the reason why this alliance
between these two languages was possible.
Linguistics experts showed that languages belonging to the
same class can combine into one and languages belonging to
different
classes eventhough can survive in hormony, the strongest
language survives and the weaker one dies. Languages belonging
to
two different classes can not combine.
The history of Telugu language offers a nice example for the
above statement. For about 500-600 years during the
Satavahana's
rule, Prakrut was used as the royal language in Andhra.
Tadbhavas from Prakrut infiltrated the Telugu language. But
Telugu did
not die. Telugu incorporated the required words from Prakrut
and discarded the rest. Guptas of North India and Pallavas of
South India fought battles in 400-500 AD. These battles killed
the royal language, Prakrut. Finally, Prakrut rested in the
Buddhism books in Tibet. Following, Sanskrit influenced Telugu
of Andhras for about 500 years. During 1000-1100 AD,
Nannaya's Telugu in Bharatam, Telugu in several inscriptions,
Telugu in poetry reestablished its roots and dominated over
the
royal language, Sanskrit. Telugu absorbed the Tatsamas from
Sanskrit only. The marriage between "Desi" and
"Telugu" was
possible.
Words like "Telugu", "Tenugu", and
"Andhramu" were used in several instances in the
"Tenugu Bharatam" written in 1050 AD. The name for a tribe is "Andhra" which is also used
to call the language that had evolved over 1000 years. "Andhrulu",
"Andhradesam", "Teluguvaru",
"Telugudesam", "Tenugudesam", and
"Tenugu Bhasha" are used as synonyms.
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