Apparently it all starts with this book written by Alexander D. Campbell in 1816:
The language of which a Grammar is now offered to the Public is commonly, but improperly, termed by Europeans the Gentoo. It is the Andhra of Sanscrit authors, and, in the country where it is spoken, is known by the name of the Trilinga, Telinga, Teloogoo, or Tenapgoo. This language is the vernacular dialect of the Hindoos, inhabiting that part of (he Indian Peninsula, which, extending from the Dutch settlement of Pulicat on the Coast of Coromandel, inland to the vicinity of Bangalore, stretches northwards, along the coast as far as Chicacole, and in the interior to the sources of the Tapti ;
bounded on the east by the Bay of Bengal, and on the west by an irregular line, passing through the western districts belonging to the Soubahdar of the Deccan, and cutting off the most eastern provinces of the new state of Mysore : -a tract including the five Northern Circars of Ganjam, Vizagapatam, Rajahmundry, Mastili-* patam, and Guntoor ; the greater portion of the Nizam's extensive territories; the districts of Cuddapah and Beliari ceded by him to the British ; the eastern provinces of Mysore; and the northern portion of the Carnatick : nor is this
language unknown in the more Southern parts of India, for the descendants of those Teloogoo families which were deputed by the Kings of Vidianagara to control their southern conquests, or which occasionally emigrated from Teljngana to avoid famine or oppression, are scattered all over the Dravida and Oarnataca provinces ; and ever retaining- the language of their forefathers, have diffused a
knowledge of it throughout the Peninsula.
A tradition current in Telingana, and noticed by many of it's best native * Authors, states the original name of this language, aa well as that of the country in which it is spoken, to have been Tri-lingum, or in pure Teloogoo Modagalingum ; t namely the language or country of the three lingums : a name derived from the three lingums, or mystic symbols of the divinity, in the form, of which
Shiva, the destructive and re-producing power in the Indian Trinity, is reported to have descended upon the mountains of Shri Shuelum or Purvatum, Caleswarum, and Bheemeswarnm or Dracharamum, where he is supposed still to hold his awful abode, and is worshipped under the respective names of Mullecarjoona, Calanadha, and Bheemeswara. These three lingums are said to have marked the chief boundaries of the country known in modern times by the name of Telingana.
The first, that of Shri Shuelum, still celebrated in the Deccan, is particularly described in the extract from Captain Colin Mc'Kenzie's journal inserted in the 5th volume of the Asiatic Researches, of which a part is subjoined in a note below. * It is romantically situated in an unfrequented spot, surrounded by an almost impenetrable forest, among the wild mountains through which the impetuous current of the Kistna forces it's passage from the high table land to the plains, and forms the termination of that chain of hills, which, from the vicinity of the great temple at Tripetty, winds to the north in irregular and separate ranges. In Arrowsmith's Map of 1804, it is placed near the Nalmul hill* in Canoul (Kurnool) under the name of Parrawottum, upon the Kistna, just before that river takes a sudden but short direction to the north. It is the second of the twelve Jyotee lingums mentioned as peculiarly holy, in the 38th Ac^iyaye of the Sheev Pooran ; and, in the Brahmanda Pooran, it is also mentioned as the eighth of the second class of mountains. In tfye year 1677, we find Sevajee, the celebrated founder of the Mahratta Empire, performing penance at this shrine f ; and, on the annual recurrence of the Shivaratree, or the night sacred to Shiva, immense crowds of peoplg still flock thither from all parts of Hindoostan.
The second lingutn at Caleswarutn, visited occasionally by a great concourse of pilgrims, is situated on the spot where Arrowsmith places Callysair Ghaut on the Godavary, and is the same that is described by Captain Blunt, in the seventh volume of the Asiatic Researches, under the name of a Pagoda sacred to Call, standing on the very boundary of Telingana, where the Baun Gunga joins the
Godavary. I have not yet succeeded in establishing to my satisfaction the site of the third liogum, worshipped under the name of Bheemeswara, which I am inclined to believe is the same as Bheema Shenker, the sixth of the twelve Jyotee lingums, enumerated in the Sheev Pooran, and there stated to be situated in the Deccan. The best informed natives give a very vague account of the site of this temple, some asserting it to be in the Northern Circars, where it is known by the name of Dracharamum, others in the western Ghauts, or, as they describe it, " towards
Poona" A Temple of this name is cursorily mentioned by Dr. Francis Buchanan as standing in the immense chain of hills which runs along the western side of the Peninsula; and, as this is near the southwest junction of the Mahratta, Mysore, and Telingana territories, it is perhaps the third lingum * Be this as it may, the situations of the two other lingums sufficiently evince the correctness of the tradition which describes them as the boundaries of the country termed Tri-lingum> subsequently known to the Mahommedan conquerors of the Deccan under the modified name of Telingana ; for the northern and southern limits of Telingana proper, as exhibited in our best maps, will be found to coincide very nearly with the sites of these two temples. In further confirmation of this tradition, it may be noticed that Ptolemy mentions " Triglyphon vel Trilingum regia " f but places it beyond the Ganges ; and that Pliny, alluding to the same region, under it's purer name of Modogalingum
makes it an island in the Ganges " Insula in gange estmagncs amplititdmis, gentem continens unam, Modogalingum nomine" Inaccuracies respecting situation are not uncommon in the writings of the
ancients relative to Indian geography, and those which have just been mentioned, with some other similar inconsistencies, may perhaps be reconciled, by supposing that under the name of the Ganges, either the Ganges proper, or the Godaverv, may occasionally be understood. In The Peninsula, each of these rivers is known by the name of the Gunga, and they are looked upon as sister streams. ** The Godavery is here considered the elder of the two, perhaps from it's being the first known to the inhabitants of these regions ; and the Ganges proper is deemed the more holy, apparently from the present religion of India, having originated, or been more early established, on its banks. The ancient books* of the Hindoos, indeed, bear testimony that, even in the most remote times, these two*
rivers have occasionally been considered as one ; for, in more than ,one place in the Poorans, the Ganges proper is described as passing through Calinga, a country which we know to be the region watered by the Godavery*. So far, therefore, as regards the course of the Ganges through Calinga, described in these ancient books, it must be the Godavery to which they allude. From the adjective Trilinga, by a general grammatical rule \ is derived Tilinga,^ or as it is more generally written Telinga From Tilinga also, by corruption, the Native Grammarians derive the words Tenoogoo and Teloogoo which is the name now generally given to the language in the country where it is spoken. The little resemblance between Tenoogo or Teloogoo, and Telinga, may induce an English reader to question this derivation : but, as I have remarked in a subsequent part of this work, great deference is due by a foreigner to the testimony of Native Authors; and when it is considered that many words have passed into Teloogoo through the medium of the Pracrit, or other corrupted dialects of the Sanscrit, and ' have been naturalized in it for ages, the little connexion now to be traced between some original words, and their corruptions, ought not alone to invalidate the established etymologies of successive Grammarians. It may not be irrelevant, however, to observe, that Teloogoo may possibly be derived from I the adjective Tellu. ** fair, white, an appellation which might with much propriety be applied to the people of Telihgana, compared with the neighbouring nations and that Tenoogoo may be translated sweet, from Tene, honey, a denomination by no means inapplicable to a language that has often been termed the Italian of the East> The Country known by the name of Modogalingum or Trilihgum appears to have been subdivided, at a very early period, into the Calinga and Andhra provinces. Calinga* stretched northwards along the coast, from the Godavery towards the Ganges ; including those regions which are situated in the vicinity of the second lingum at Caleswarum, from which it probably took it's name Calingum** The nation is mentioned by Pliny as "
Calingce prozimimari" and ' Gentes gangaridum Calinffaruni" and the people and language of Telingana are still known to the inhabitants of the Eastern islands by no other name than Caling or Keling4 Andhra, whence the first ancient dynasty of Hffictoo Emperors appear to have derived their name,*** seems to have been an inland subdivision to the south of the Godavery, greater in extent than Calinga. Pliny, after specifying the names of several Indian nations, alludes to the Andhrae as a superior people " Validior deinde gens Andhrte " plurimis vicis XXX oppidis, guce muris turribusque muniuntur regi prcebetpeditum " C. M. equitum M. M. ekphantos -M" and Andhra, which is the name given to the Teloogoo by all Sanscrit Grammarians who have written respecting it, continues to
be the current appellation of the language in many parts of the Country. The most ancient Teloogoo Grammarian of whom mention is made in the native books is the sage Kunva, who is said to have been the first that composed a treatise on the principles of the language. It f is stated that he executed this work by command of a king of Andhra, named Andhra royoodoo, son J of Soochundra who
reigned at Siccacollum on the banks of the Krishna. On the death of Soochundra, Andhraroyoodoo quitted the capital of Siccacollum, and established his residence on the banks of the Godavery possibly at Rajahmundry, which we afterwards find mentioned as the capital of the Kings of the Chalookia race. Many fabulous accounts of the feats of this prince are current in, Telingana, and such has been the veneration of the people for his virtues, that they have deified him as an incarnation of the God Vishtnoo, in which character he is still worshipped at the ancient capital of Siccacollum near Masulipatam. The works of Kunva, of Audharvan Achary, and of several other ancient Grammarians, are not now to be found. All the treatises on Teloogoo grammar, at present I extant, consist of Sanscrit commentaries, (5n*a series of concise apothegms written in Sanscrit by a Bramin named Nannapa, or Nunniah Bhutt. The text of Nunniah Bhutt, as explained by his best commentators, has been my principal guide in the work which I now offer to the Public ; but as the illustrations, comparisons/ and arrangement of these Authors are borrowed exclusively from , the language in which they compose, and from a system of grammar *the most artificial perhaps ever invented by human ingenuity., I have adhered to them in these respects, so far only as they are calculated to assist an English
Student. I have often been obliged to deviate from them, and, in imitation of my guides, to accommodate my illustrations &c. &c. to the grammar of the language in which I write. Nunniah Bhutt, the author of the apothegms above mentioned, undertook also the herculean labor of translating the voluminous Mahabarut from Sanscrit into Teloogoo verse ; and although he did not live to finish this work, which was subsequently completed by Tickuna Somiazooloo, he succeeded in immortalizing his memory in this part of India, by rendering this book the great standard of Teloo-' goo poetry. We learn from the introduction to * the Teloogoo Mahabharut that Nunniah Bhutt was cotemporary with the King Vishtnoo Vurdhana, ** of the Shiva sect and Chalookia race, who reigned at Rajahmundry on the banks of the Godavery. Colonel Wilkes, in his Historical Sketches of the South of India, makes the Chalookia race more ancient than the Cadurnba kings of Bunawassi, whose dynasty is stated to have been subverted in the second century of the Christian aera. If this be admitted, the works of Nunnia Bhutt may boast of great antiquity.
Although the Teloogoo would thus appear to have been a cultivated language at a very early period, it is hardly to be expected, among the different political and religious convulsions which have so often violently agitated the Deccan, that many of the productions of so remote an age should have reached these times. Accordingly, with the exception of the abovementioned works of Nunniah Bhutt, and some books composed towards the close of the twelfth century, during the reign of Pertaub Roodroo, one of the last kings of the Belial dynasty, which succeeded that of Cadumba, we find that nearly all the Teloogoo works now current in the country were written after the dissolution of the ancient government of Telingana, and the establishment of the more modern empire of
Vidianagara. On the capture of Warunkul, t Tftecapital of the Belial Kings of Telingana, by the Pattans, A. D. 1323, certain officers of these ancient princes are stated to have emigrated to the southern provinces, where they founded the celebrated city of Vidianagara or Vizianagara, the Bijanagur of Arrowsmith, and established a new dynasty of twenty princes* known by the name of Raya or Rdtjaloo,
who gradually extended their sway all over the South of India, and reigned from the commencement of the fourteenth to the close of the sixteenth century. Of these kings, the most celebrated was Krishna Royaloo, a prince who reigned -during the earlier part of the sixteenth century. He is highly renowned* in Telingana for his piety in repairing the numerous temples in the Carnatick, and for the great personal bravery he displayed in the course of his extensive conquests in the Peninsula, but Chiefly for his munificent encouragement of Teloogoo literature.
A great number of books, composed during the reigu of Krishna Royaloo, are still to be found in the libraries of the present Polygars, of whom many in the Northern Districts, as far as Nellore, and several in the South, are descended from the former officers of the Vidianagara government : but the intolerant zeal of the Mahommedans, whose irruptions into the South of India terminated in the overthrow of the Vidianagara Empire, has left of the more ancient Teloogoo works little else remaining than the name. The works still extant, however, are sufficiently numerous and various to evince
the great degree of refinement to which the Teloogoo has attained. Few languages will be found more copious, more nervous, or more regular in construction, and it may boast, in a peculiar manner, of great elegance of expression, and melody of sound. Under the fostering auspices of fhe British Government, it is confidently hoped that the Teloogoo may recover that place which it once held among the languages of the East, and that the liberal policy of the Legislature f may bo successful in renewing, among the Natives of Telingana {Aha..Tamil is new Telugu}, that spirit of literature and science, which formerly so happily prevailed among them, and still so much endears to their remembrance the days of the most enlightened of their, Hindoo Rulers* Nearly the whole body of Teloogoo literature consists of Poetry, written iu what may be termed the superior dialect of the language ; but so different is this from the inferior or colloquial dialect, in common use among all classes of the people, that even to the learned, the use of commentaries is indispensable for the correct understanding of many of their best works. This peculiarity of two dialects is common to the Teloogoo, with the Tamil and the Karnataca. In the course of this work, I propose to give all the rules for the superior dialect, as being that from which the other is derived, but 1 shall carefully notice the peculiarities of
the common dialect. The reader will bear in mind that in conversation and official business, the inferior is used to the entire exclusion of the superior dialect, and that in all books or studied compositions, a contrary rule obtains. Such as have acquired a knowledge of the Teloogoo language merely with a view to colloquial intercourse with the people, or to the transaction of official
business, and have confined their studies exclusively to the inferior dialect, may accuse me of entering on an unprofitable and unnecessary task, in treating of the other, which, in their estimation, may be deemed altogether foreign to the Teloogoo. An attentive examination of the two may possibly lead to a very different conclusion: at all events, as this work is intended as much to enable the student to < understand the rules which regulate the classical compositions of the Natives, as to teach him to speak or write the common Teioogoo, I have deemed it my duty to follow the Native Grammarians by tracing the language to it's original source in the superior dialect at the same time, I have not neglected it's more useful branches in the inferior dialect, which, as being vulgar, Native authors have
considered beneath the notice of the learned. The Teloogoo is spoken with the greatest purity in the Northern Circars, I and with much of it's native simplicity by the Ratsawars, Velmawars, and other
superior classes in those districts. More conversant with arms, however, than with books, the Ratsawars * and Velmawars are in general ignorant of the princii pies of their own tongue- Indeed the three inferior classes of Telingana, unlike their neighbours of the Tamil Nation, seem to have abandoned the culture of their language, with every other branch of literature and science, to the sacred tribe* The Vussoochuritru is the only Teloogoo work of note not composed by a Bramin. But, with the manners and habits of their ancestors, the Velmawars, Comtees, and Soodra casts, descended from the aborigines of the country, retain a great deal of the original language of Telingana, and are more sparing in the use of Sanscrit words than the Bramins. It has been very generally asserted, and indeed believed, that the Teloogoo has it's origin in the language of the Vedums, and many of the most eminent oriental scholars have given their authority in support of this opinion. It is not *' * ... without much deference, therefore, that I venture publicly to state my inquiries to have led me to contrary conclusion ; but I do so with the less hesitation, as I find myself supported by the concurrent evidence of all Native Authors who have ever written on the subject of the Teloogoo language. On this, and on several other material points connected with the structure of the Teloogoo, I regret that my sentiments should be entirely at variance with, those of so celebrated an orientalist as Dr. Carey, one of the learned Professors in the College of Fort William, to whom the Public are indebted for a very copious Grammar of the Sanscrit language, and for a series of works on the elements of the spoken dialects of India. In the preface to a Telinga Grammar, which issued
from the press after the present work had been completed and submitted to Government, Dr. Carey writes as follows, " The languages of the South of India " I. e. the Telinga, Karnata, Tamil, Malayala, and Cingalese, while they have " the same origin with those of the North" (viz. the Sanscrit) differ greatly from " them in other respects : and especially in Having a large proportion of words the
"origin of which is unascertained ; or, as he afterwards terms them, words current " in the country, "^^^, of which the derivation is uncertain-"
This is where he inserts his divisive bile. In the book itself he will go on to make up this sheet which needs to be debunked.
This divisive bile will further get a significant boost from one Robert Caldwell in 1856 with his book :
making the entire set of south indian languages as a diff branch of family from that of Sanskrit even though natives themselves believed their language is tied to Sanskrit and in fact originated from Sanskrit.