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SEPTEMBER, 1898.]
THE TELUGU LITERATURE.
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bhúshanam :-"The Andra country lies within the three Liúga temples, Sriparvata, Kalêsvara, and Draksharâma, which make the three lingas. The word Trilinga having become a Tadbhava, the country has come to be known as Teluga Dêsam, which, afterwards, others called Telugadêsam, and the language thereof consists of five elements." Nannaya Bhatta, in his Andhrabhdshachintamani, has taught us:
"Adyaprakritih prakritisch âd yê Esha tayôr bhavêd vikrith Kêvalatayanusurpatyubhê chêyam
Yatha tatbâ bhåshå 11 The primitive language (meaning the Primitive Aryan speech) and the therefrom derived Prakrita language are primitive, this (the Telaga) language is their variation; this language entirely follows the other two languages in every respect."
Abhinavadaņdi, the author of the more ancient Telugu Bháshábhushanam, has, as one of the opening stanzas :
“ Talli Samskritamb-ella bhashalakunu
Dani valana gonta ganabadiyê Gonta dana galigin=antayan-kamai
Tenagu bhåshananga vinutikekke II Sanskrit is the parent of languages, Rome, i. e., the Prakrit languages have come from it; something has come from the Pråkpit languages; all joined together has come to be known as the Telugu language."
Thus we see that the belief among the Indian literati has always been that Sanskrit is the parent of all languages, nor is there anything, in their opinion, which can be adduoed to shake this belief, as every linguistic analysis will only serve to strengthen rather than weaken it.
The works of highest repute in Telugu are translations from Sanskrit, and the oldest works extant are not of higher antiquity than the end of the twelfth century, whilst its Augustan era, the reign of Krishnadevaraya of Vijayanagara, dates from the beginning of the sixteenth. The first attempts to reduce the uses of the language to rule, appear to have been made late in the thirteenth century when Nannaya Bhatta, a Brahman of considerable learning, and the translator of the first two books of the Mahabhárata, compiled a Teluga grammar in Sanskrit. Mr. Campbell, in the preface to his Grammar, states that the most ancient grammarian of whom mention is made in the native books is the sage Kaņva, who appears to have been to the people of Andhra or Telingana, what Agastya was to those farther south, their initiator into the mysteries of Hinduism. His works, and those of other writers of antiquity, are not now to be found, and all the treatises on Telugu grammar at present extant consist of Sanskrit commentaries on the series of Apothegms of Nannaya Bhatta. The age of this last, although conjectured by Mr. Campbell to be remote, can be ascertained by documents of which he was not in possession, viz., inscriptions recording grants made by his patron, Vishguvardhana of Rajamahêndri, to be, as above stated, the close of the thirteenth century. Mr. Campbell admits
1 [According to tradition the Telugu translation of the Mahabharata was made by Nannayabhatta during the time of the Chalukya King Rajanarendra. An inscription at Sakarram near Chioacole refers to the Telugu translation of tha Mahihirsts during the reiga of the Estern Chalukya King RajarAja I. (A, D. 1022 to 1063), the son of Vimaladitya (see Dr. Haltzsch's Annual Report for 1895-93, p. 6, paragraph 81). According to tradition Nannayabhatta received help in his translation of the Mahabharata from a certain Nardy ps. In the Nandamapandis the Eastern Chalukya King Rajaraja L, dated in his 32nd year (A. D. 1053), a certain N Ardyaņa figures as the donee, while the Sanskrit verses of the inscription were composed by Nanniyabbatta. Of the former it is said that on account of his skill in composing poetry in the Samskrita Karpka, PaifAcbika and Andhra languages, he was renowned as Kavirjasekhars and that because, by his clever versea, he put to shame would be poeta, he was rightly called Karibhavajraúkuba (pigraphia Indica, Vol. IV. p. 802). As it is unlikely that, during the time of the Eastern Chalukys King Rajaraja L, there was more than one pair of poots bearing the same Narayana and Nanniyabhatta, wo may, at least provisionally, identify the Telugu translation of the Mahabharata and his coadjutor in the work with the composer and the donoe, respectively, of the Nandamapandi grant. Thus we get the middle of the eleventh Century A. D. for the time of Nannryabhatta, the Teluga translator of the Mahabharata.-V. VENKAYYA]
