The main languages spoken in Andhra Pradesh are Telugu, Urdu,
Hindi, Banjara, and English followed by Tamil, Kannada, Marathi and Oriya.
Telugu is the principal and official language of the State. It was also
referred to as `Tenugu' in the past. `Andhra' is the name given to it since the
medieval times. Some argued that `Telugu' was a corruption of `Trilinga'
(Sanskrit meaning three `lingas'). A general description of the land of the
Telugus was made in the medieval times as `the land marked by three lingas of
the three famous shrines of Draksharamam (East Godavari district), Kaleswaram
(Karimnagar district) and Srisailam (Kurnool district).
Telugu is the most widely spoken language of the Dravidian family which
consists of 24 languages spanning the entire South-Asia, from Baluchistan to
Sri Lanka. In terms of population, Telugu ranks second to Hindi among the
Indian languages. According to the 1981* Census, Telugu is spoken by over 45
million in Andhra Pradesh. It has also spread to the other parts of the globe,
i.e., Burma, Indo-China, South-Africa and the U.S.A. Being a mellifluous
language, it is called, by its admirers as the `Italian of the East'.
Its vocabulary is very much influenced by
Sanskrit. In the course of time, some Sanskrit expressions used in Telugu got
so naturalised that people regarded them as pure Telugu words. Some Kannada and
Tamil words were also taken into Telugu but they did not gain much currency.
With the advent of the Muslim rule, several
Persian and Arabic words entered into the Telugu language. But they were
confined to the spoken language and to the language of the judiciary and the
executive. The influence of Persian and Arabic is discernible to a considerable
extent in the languages spoken in Telangana due to its long association with
the Muslim rule. There is also a great element of English words in the
vocabulary of Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema because these regions were
directly under the British rule for nearly a century and a half.
The evolution of Telugu can be traced through
centuries in terms of its form as well as its function. Although culturally
Telugu is close to its southern neighbours -- Tamil and Kannada -- genetically,
it is closer to its northern neighbours -- Gondi, Konda, Kui, Kuvi, Pengo and
Manda. There is evidence to show that these languages were freely borrowed from
Telugu even from the prehistoric period whereas borrowing between Telugu and
Tamil and Kannada has been mostly during the historic period, i.e., post-5th
*Language-wise population figures of 1991
Census have not yet been released by the Census Department.
It is possible to identify broadly four stages
in the history of the Telugu language.
(1) B.C. 200 -- A.D. 500
(2) A.D. 500--A.D.1100
(3) A.D. 1100--A.D.1400 and
(4) A.D. 1400--A.D.1900.
During the first phase, we only come across
names of places and personal names of Telugu in Prakrit and Sanskrit
inscriptions found in the Telugu country. Telugu was exposed to the influence
of Prakrit as early as the 3rd century B.C. From this we know that the language
of the people was Telugu, although the language of the rulers was different.
The first complete Telugu inscription belongs to the Renati Cholas, found in
Erragudipadu, Kamalapuram taluk of Cuddapah district and assigned to about A.D.
575. Telugu was exposed to the influence of Sanskrit about this period. It
appears that literature also existed in Telugu about the same time, because we
find literary style in the inscriptions some three centuries even before
Nannaya's (A.D. 1022) Mahabharatam. During the time of Nannaya, the popular
language had considerably diverged from the literary language.
In the period A.D. 500--1100, the
literary languages confined to the poetic works, flourished in the courts of
kings and among scholars. Phonetic changes, which occurred in the popular
language, are reflected in the literary language, although the two streams
remained apart in grammar and vocabulary. During A.D. 1100--1400 the literary
language got stylized and rigid, closing itself from the influence of
contemporary spoken language. Ketana (13th century AD), a disciple of Tikkana
prohibited the use of spoken words in the poetic works and quoted some spoken
forms. During the period A.D. 1400--1900, many changes culminating in today's
form of Telugu took place.
The prose language of the 19th century,
as can be seen from the `Kaifiyats', shows the educated speech as base with
occasional influence of literary language. We also notice the influence of Urdu
language on Telugu before the spread of English education.
From the foregoing overview of the
history of the Telugu language, one can see that what we now use as modern
standard Telugu, had its beginnings in the spoken variety, right from the 10th
century A.D. The language was progressively enriched by contact with Sanskrit,
Prakrit, Urdu and English from early times.
Until the advent of the printing press
and the school system of education, Telugu was broadly used in four areas: (1)
inscriptions, (2) poetry, (3) folk literature, (4) common speech (social and
perhaps official). The language of the inscriptions had always been based on
the contemporary speech of the educated with an occasional admixture of
literary and rustic expressions. Folk literature, which was in the form of
songs, drew mainly on the speech of the common people among whom it circulated,
basically rural in its character. Both in its appeal and form, the poetic
language was confined to royal courts and the elite. Care was taken to keep it
insulated from the speech of even the scholars and poets, who used it in other
areas of communication. Because of this restriction on the medium, prose never
emerged as a form of classical literature in Telugu. Even the sparse scientific
writing on prosody, arithmetic, medicine and grammar was cast either in Telugu
verse or in Sanskrit slokas. The emergence of popular literary forms like the
satakas devotional songs and the yaksha gana necessitated extensive reliance on
contemporary spoken language in their appeal and expressiveness. Early
commentaries, historical accounts (like Rayavachakam), and the few prose works,
which were written for instructional purposes in the first half of the 19th
century, were all written in educated speech which was distinct from the
language of the literary dialect. In 1853, Chinnayasuri, a Telugu pundit in the
Presidency College, first experimented with a prose variety based on the
classical poetic language in his book "Niti Chandrika". In 1855, he published
Bala Vyakaranamu, an excellent grammar of the poetic language, but it was
intended for school study and as a guide to `Correct Writing'. These works had,
to some extent, given support to traditional pundits, who upheld the Kavya
bhasha as primary and the spoken language as its degenerate form. The influence
of Chinnayasuri temporarily arrested the growth of creative prose by famous
writers until Gurazada Appa Rao appeared on the scene and produced his social
play Kanyasulkam in 1897 in a near modern language. The controversy that raged
between the two schools, classical and modern subsided in 1919 with a victory
for the classic writers to perpetuate the use of the so-called granthikam (or
the poetic dialect) as the language of the text-book language and the medium of
examination. However, teaching has all along been done only in the spoken
variety of the teacher.
For about 90 years (1850--1940), Telugu
prose had a stunted growth, although scholars like Kandukuri Viresalingam and
Panuganti Lakshminarasimha Rao used a `liberalized poetic variety' in their
writings, which was neither fully classical nor fully modern.
Since the nineteen forties, Telugu prose
style wriggled out of the clutches of the traditional pundits. The emergence of
mass media of communication, like the radio, T.V., cinema, language, newspapers
and new forms of writing, under the impact of nationalist movement reinforced
the importance of the spoken word and various literary forms blossomed in
modern language. By and large, the prosperous Krishna -- Godavari delta became
the breeding ground of many writers and scholars, and their spoken variety
assumed several prose forms and slowly spread to other areas assimilating other
dialects in its course. The language now used in all modern forms of literature
and newspapers has a great degree of uniformity and acceptability, which lends
it the status of a standard language. Now the nationalised text-books and those
prescribed for Telugu language degree by universities are the only
`sanctuaries' of the poetic dialect.
The seminar sponsored by the State
Government in 1964 at Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati, resolved that only
the modern language should be used for all subject (non-1st language) books
written in Telugu and all 2nd language books. This resolution has been
implemented in the case of subject text-books produced by the Telugu Akademi.
Now all the universities in the State are allowing the use of modern Telugu as
the examination medium and modern literature has been prescribed for study at
the University level. In 1966, Telugu became the official language of the State
and in 1974, correspondence in Telugu was made at the taluk level. This was
gradually extended to Heads of Departments and Secretariat levels. In 1969,
Telugu as the medium of instruction was introduced on a large scale in higher
Telugu literature is generally divided into six
(1) the pre-Nannaya period (up to A.D. 1020),
(2) the Age of the Puranas (1020--1400),
(3) the Age of Srinatha (1400--1510),
(4) the Age of the Prabandhas (1510--1600),
(5) the Southern period (1600--1820), and
(6) the Modern Period (after 1820).
In the earliest period there were only
inscriptions from A.D. 575 onwards. Nannaya's (1022--1063) translation of the
Sanskrit Mahabharata into Telugu is the piece of Telugu literature as yet
discovered. The diction is so masterly that historians think that there must
have been earlier works in Telugu. After the death of Nannaya, there was a kind
of social and religious revolution in the Telugu country.
Virasaivism propagated bhakti towards Siva as
the only means of attaining salvation. Tikkana (13th century) and Yerrana (14th
century) continued the translation of the Mahabharata started by Nannaya.
Yerrana was also a devotee of Siva. Quite a few poets continued writing in
Telugu and we come to the age of Srinatha.
During this period, some Telugu poets
translated Sanskrit poems and dramas, while others attempted original narrative
poems. The popular Telugu literary form called the Prabandha, was evolved
during this period. Srinatha (1365--1441) was the foremost poet, who
popularised this style of composition (a story in verse having a tight metrical
scheme). Srinatha's, Sringara Naishadham is particularly well-known.
We may also refer to the Ramayana poets in this
context. The earliest Ramayana in Telugu is generally known as the Ranganatha
Ramayana, though authorised by the chief Gona Buddha Reddi. Then there were the
great religious poets like Potana (1450--1510), Jakkana (second half of the
14th century) and Gaurana (first half of the 15th century).
The golden period of Telugu literature was the
16th and 17th centuries A.D., Krishnadevaraya's Amuktamalayada is regarded as a
Mahakavya. Peddana's Manucharitra is another outstanding Mahakavya. Telugu
literature flourished in the south in the Samsthanas like Madurai, Tanjavur
etc., and that is why the age itself was called the `Southern Period'. We find
a comparatively larger number of poets among the rulers, women and non-Brahmins
who popularised the desi metres.
With the conquest of the Deccan by the Mughals
in A.D.1687, there ensued a period of decadence (1750--1850) in literature.
Then emerged a period of transition (1850--1910), following a long period of
Renaissance. The Europeans like C.P.Brown played an important role in the
development of Telugu language and literature. In common with the rest of
India, Telugu literature of this period was increasingly influenced by the
European literary forms like the novel, short story, prose, drama,
The father of modern Telugu literature is
Kandukuri Viresalingam Pantulu (1848--1919), who wrote a novel, Rajasekhara
Charitamu, inspired by the Vicar of Wakefield. He was the first person in
modern times to use literature to eradicate social evils. He was followed by
Rayaprolu Subba Rao, Gurazada Appa Rao, Viswanatha Satyanarayana, Katuri
Venkateswara Rao, Jashuva, Devulapalli Venkata Krishna Sastry, Sri Sri,
Puttaparty Narayana Charyulu and others in the sphere of poetry. Viswanatha
Satyanarayana had won the coveted Jnanapith Award. ``Kanyasulkam''
(Bride-Money), the first social play in Telugu by Gurazada Appa Rao was a
thumping success. We also find the progressive movement, free verse movement
and Digambara style finding expression in Telugu verse. The well-known modern
Telugu novelists were Unnava Lakshminarayana (of Malapalli fame), Viswanatha
Satyanarayana (Veyi Padagalu), Kutumba Rao and Buchchi Babu. Telugu is
specially known for its daring experiments in the field of poetry and drama.
Urdu, another important language of the State
and spoken by the Muslims is Indian in origin. Though many words in it found
their way from the Arabic and Persian, it has always been true to the idiom of
the western Hindi dialect. It was ``the language of the Exalted Court'' at
Delhi in the Mughal period. It acquired the shortened name `Urdu' and became
the handmaid of the Persian culture in India.
The 1981 census recorded 41,69,179
Urdu-speaking persons in the State comprising 21,21,859 males and 20,47,320
females. Hyderabad City, the State's Capital accounted for 35 per cent of the
Urdu-speaking people in Hyderabad district, forming over 8 per cent of the
population, and came next to Telugu. Guntur, Anantapur and Cuddapah districts
also accounted for a sizeable number of Urdu-speaking people. In the Telangana
region, the overall proportion of Urdu-speaking people is very high.
Hindi speaking people, numbering 13,83,792,
(7,10,313 males and 6,73,479 females) and forming about three per cent of the
population, held the third place. None of the remaining languages was spoken by
even 2 per cent of the population. Thus Tamil, Kannada and Marathi account for
still smaller proportions. These individual languages, however, account for a
fairly substantial proportion of speakers in some districts. There were
6,45,463 Tamil; 4,84,330 Kannada, 4,31,352 Marathi and 2,36,420 Oriya speaking
people in the State. People speaking Tamil are found concentrated in Chittoor
district, which adjoins Tamil Nadu. They are also found to some extent in
Nellore and Hyderabad districts. Kannada and Marathi speakers can be seen in
districts like Anantapur and Kurnool, and Adilabad and Nizamabad respectively
which have close proximity to the adjoining Kannada and Marathi areas of
Karnataka and Maharashtra states.
Of the numerous other languages spoken in the
State, the 1981 Census recorded 44,489 persons speaking Malayalam; 36,180
speaking Gujarati, 18,544 speaking Bengali, Punjabi -16,833, Sindhi - 9,521,
Assami -248 and Kashmiri -121. Of the foreign languages spoken in the State,
414 speak Arabic and three, Tibetan.
The principal tribal languages spoken in the
State are Banjara/Sugali/Lambadi ( 45,00,000) , Koya (1,58,097), Gondi
(1,12,303), Savara (47,609), Jatapu (23,366), Kolami (13,395), Khondi/Kondh
(11,890), Gadaba (11,291) and Donda (9,951).
Revenue Department (Gazetteers)