Jump to content

A grammar of the Teloogoo language/Introduction

Add links
From Wikisource
←
A grammar of the Teloogoo language
by Alexander Duncan Campbell
Introduction
Note
→
2999864A grammar of the Teloogoo language — IntroductionAlexander Duncan Campbell
​

INTRODUCTION.

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 Tenoogoo.

This language is the vernacular dialect of the Hindoos, inhabiting that part of the 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, Masulipatam, and Guntoor; the greater portion of the Nizam’s extensive territories; the districts of Cuddapah and Bellari 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 controul their southern conquests, or which occasionally emigrated from Telingana to avoid famine or oppression, are scattered all over the Dravida and Carnataca provinces; and ever retaining the language of their forefathers, have diffused a knowledge of it throughout the Peninsula.[1]

​A tradition current in Telingana, and noticed by many of its best native[2] Authors, states the original name of this language, as well as that of the country in which it is spoken, to have been Tri-lingum, or in pure Teloogoo Modaga-lingum;[3] 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 Bheemeswarum 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.[4] 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 its 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 hills 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 Adhyaye of the Sheev Pooran; and, in the Brahmanda Pooran, it is also mentioned as the eighth of the second class of mountains. In the year 1677, we find Sevajee, the celebrated founder of the Mahratta Empire, performing penance at this shrine;[5] and, on the annual recurrence of the Shivaratree, or the night sacred to Shiva, immense crowds of people still flock thither from all parts of Hindoostan.[6]

​The second lingum at Caleswarum, 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.[7]

I have not yet succeeded in establishing to my satisfaction the site of the third lingum, 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.[8] 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”[9] but places it beyond the Ganges; and that Pliny, alluding to the same region, under its purer name of Modogalingum[10] makes it an island in the Ganges—“Insula in gange estmagncæ amplitudinis, 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 Godavery, 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.[11] The Godavery is here considered the elder of the two, perhaps from its 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[12] 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.[13] 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[14] is derived Tilinga,[15] 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 the adjective Tellu,[16] 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 Trilingum appears to have been subdivided, at a very early period, into the Calinga and Andhra provinces. Calinga[17] 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 its name Calingum.[18]—The nation is mentioned by Pliny as “Calingæ proximi mari” and “Gentes gangaridum Calingarum” and the people and language of Telingana are still known to the inhabitants of the Eastern islands by no other name than Caling or Keling.[19] Andhra, whence the first ancient dynasty of Hindoo Emperors appear to have derived their name,[20] 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 Andhræ as a superior people—“Validior deinde gens Andhræ plurimis vicis XXX oppidis, quæ muris turribusque muniuntur; regi præbet peditum C. M. equitum M. M. elephantos 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[21] is stated that he executed this work by command of a king of Andhra, named Andhra royoodoo, son[22] of Soochundra who reigned at Siccacollum on the banks of the Krishna. On the death of Soochundra, Andhra-royoodoo 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[23] 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 extant, consist of Sanscrit commentaries, on 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 Teloogoo poetry. We learn from the introduction to[24] the Teloogoo Mahabharut that ​Nunniah Bhutt was cotemporary with the King Vishtnoo Vurdhana,[25] of the Shiva sect and Chalookia race, who reigned at Rajahmundry on the banks of the Godavery. Colonel Wilkes,[26] in his Historical Sketches of the South of India, makes the Chalookia race more ancient than the Cadumba kings of Bunawassi, whose dynasty is stated to have been subverted in the second century of the Christian æra. If this be admitted, the works of Nunniah 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 Bellal 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,[27] the capital of the Bellal 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[28] known by the name of Raya or Royaloo, 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[29] 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 reign 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.[30]

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 the 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[31] may be successful in renewing, among the Natives of Telingana, 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 in 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 I 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 Teloogoo, I have deemed it my duty to follow the Native Grammarians by tracing the language to its original source in the superior dialect—at the same time, I have not neglected its 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, and with much of its native simplicity by the Ratsawars, Velmawars, and other superior classes in those districts. More conversant with arms, however, than with books, the Ratsawars[32] and Velmawars are in general ignorant of the ​principles 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 its 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, దేశ్యము, of which the derivation is uncertain.”

​While I coincide in opinion with Dr. Carey, that, “among these five languages, the Telinga appears to be the most polished, and though confessedly a very difficult language, it must be numbered with those which are the most worthy of cultivation, its variety of inflection being such as to give it a capacity of expressing ideas with a high degree of facility, justness, and elegance;” with deference, I submit that he has given an erroneous view of the structure and derivation of the Teloogoo. In common with every other tongue now spoken in India, modern Teloogoo abounds with Sanscrit words, perhaps it has a greater proportion of them than any of the other southern dialects; nevertheless there is reason to believe that the origin of the two languages is altogether distinct.

With the exception of a few letters peculiar to Sanscrit words, and evidently taken from the Nagree alphabet, the round and flowing characters of the Teloogoo bear no resemblance to the square Devanagree: and even if the Teloogoo alphabet were found to be derived from the Nagree, it would only prove that the people of Telingana had borrowed the invention of a more civilized nation. The origin of their language might still be as different from that of their alphabet, as the origin of our present Roman characters, from that of our Saxon words.

It has already been mentioned that all the Native Teloogoo Grammars are written by Bramins, in the Sanscrit tongue; and that their arrangement of the alphabet, their illustrations, and their comparisons, are necessarily borrowed from the language in which they write. This circumstance might justify the supposition that the Bramins were the first who cultivated the Teloogoo, and brought it under fixed rules: but it cannot be urged in proof of any radical connexion between the Teloogoo and the Sanscrit.

It has also been noticed that, in speaking the Teloogoo, the Soodras use very few Sanscrit words: among the superior classes of Vysyus, and pretenders to the Rajah cast, Sanscrit terms are used only in proportion to their greater intimacy with the Bramins, and their books; and, when we find even such Sanscrit words as these classes do adopt, pronounced by them in so improper and rude a manner as to be a common jest to the Bramins, who, at the same time, never question their ​pronunciation of pure Teloogoo words, I think we may fairly infer it to he probable at least that these Sanscrit terms were originally foreign to the language spoken by the great body of the people.

Some Native Grammarians[33] maintain that, before the King Andhra-royadoo[34] established his residence on the banks of the Godavery, the only Teloogoo words were those peculiar to what is emphatically termed the pure Teloogoo, now generally named the language of the land, which they consider coeval with the people, or as they express it “created by the God Brimha.” The followers of this prince, say they, for the first time began to adopt Sanscrit terms with Teloogoo terminations, and by degrees corruptions from the Sanscrit crept into the language, from the ignorance of the people respecting the proper pronunciation of the original words. This would imply that the nation still retain some faint remembrance of those times, in which their language existed independent of the Sanscrit; and it is certain that every Teloogoo Grammarian, from the days of Nunnia Bhutt to the present period, considers the two languages as derived from sources entirely distinct; for each commences his work by classing the words of the language under four separate heads, which they distinguish by the respective names of (Telugu characters) language of the land, (Telugu characters) Sanscrit derivatives, (Telugu characters) Sanscrit corruptions, and (Telugu characters) provinical terms. To these, latter authors have ​added అన్యదేశ్యము foreign words or those from other lands.

As this arrangement is essential to a proper illustration of the structure of the Teloogoo language, it will be adhered to in the following work. Of the different classes of words specified above, the tree first only are mentioned in the Telinga Grammar by Dr. Carey; the first is there stated to comprize “words current in the country of which the derivaton is uncertain,” a “large proportion” of which are allowed to be included in the language; the second is stated to contain “pure Sungskrita words;” and the third “words derived from the Sungskrita, but written and pronounced differently.”

The words included in the first class, which I have denominated the language of the land, are not only a “large proportion” of words, but the most numerous in the language, and the model by which those included in the other classes are modified and altered, from the diffrent languages to which they originally belong. Why the origin of this class of terms is supposed to be unascertained has not been stated; nor can I conceive how so erroneous a conclusion could have been adopted; for the name given to them by all Sanscrit Grammarians, by the whole body of the people, and by Dr. Carey himself, at once points out their derivation. This name is దేశ్యము, a noun used either as a substantive or an adjective, in the former sense denoting a country or land, in the latter, in which it is here used, implying that which belongs to the country or land; it marks the words in question, not as merely “current in the country,” but as the growth and produce of the land; it would be difficult to define more precisely the origin of any words, and to this class must we look for the pure Teloogoo—for the true language of the land.

The second class of words I have termed Sanscrit derivatives, and I prefer this denomination to that; of “pure Sungskrita words” given to it by Dr. Carey; for although the words included in it contain the crude forms of pure Sanscrit words, they cannot appear in Teloogoo in their ​original shape, but invariably assume terminations or undergo changes peculiar to the pure Teloogoo, or language of the land.

The third class of words which is generally mentioned by Dr. Carey as “derived from the Sungskrita,” I have named Sanscrit Corruptions; it consists of words which have passed into Teloogoo, either directly from the Sanscrit, or through the medium of some of its corrupted dialects, such as the Pracrit, and which, in order to be assimilated to the language of the land, have undergone radical alterations, by the elision, insertion, addition, or subtraction of letters. These changes have been sometimes carried so far, that it is difficult to trace any connexion between the adulterated word and its original in Sanscrit.

In the course of this work, it will be obvious to the Sanscrit scholar that the declension of the noun, by particles or words added to it—the use of a plural pronoun (మనము) applicable to the, first and second persons conjointly—the conjugation of the affirmative verb—the existence of a negative aorist, a negative imperative, and other negative forms in the verb—the union of the neuter and feminine genders in the singular, and of the masculine and feminine genders in the plural, of the pronouns and verbs—and the whole body of the syntax, are entirely unconnected with the Sanscrit; while the Tamil and Karnataca scholar will at once recognize their radical connexion with each of these languages. The reader will find all words denoting the different parts of the human frame, the various sorts of food or utensils in common use among the Natives, the several parts of their dress, the compartments of their dwellings, the degrees of affinity and consanguinity peculiar to them, in short all terms expressive of primitive ideas or of things necessarily named in the earlier stages of society, to belong to the pure Teloogoo or language of the land.[35] It is true, (so mixed have the two languages now become) that Sanscrit derivatives or corruptions may, without impropriety, be occasionally used to denote some of these. This, however, is not common, the great body of Sanscrit words admitted info the language consists of abstract terms, and of words connected with science, religion, or law ​as is the case, in a great degree, with the Greek and Latin words incorporated with our own tongue: but even such Sanscrit words as are thus introduced into Telogoo are not allowed to retain their original forms, they undergo changes, and assume terminations and inflections unknown to the Sanscrit, and, except as foreign quotations, are never admitted into Teloogoo until they appear in the dress peculiar to the language of the land.

This brief notice of the structure of the Teloogoo seemed necessary, in order to explain the principles on which the following chapters are founded: the further consideration of the subject I leave to others, as the prolonged discussion of it is foreign to a work of this nature. I am inclined, however, to believe that the Teloogoo will be found to have its origin in a source different from the Sanscrit, a source common perhaps to the Teloogoo, with the superior dialects of the Tamil and Karnatca. But the introduction of Sanscrit words into this language must have taken place at so remote a period, as to be now almost beyond the reach of inquiry. With the religion of the Bramins, the people of Tilingana could not fail to adopt much of the language of that extraordinary tribe; their constant intercourse with each other for a long series of years has necessarily confirmed this intermixture of language, and it must be admitted that the Teloogoo has been as much improved by adopting an indefinite number of words from the Sanscrit, as our own tongue has been ameliorated by borrowing from the more refined languages of Greece and Rome.

Having concluded the few introductory remarks which I had to offer to the reader in explanation of the plan of my work, I avail myself of this occasion to make my public acknowledgments for the assistance with which I have been favoured in the course of its progress.

To my friend Mr. Stokes of the civil service on this establishment, who did me the favour to peruse the manuscript before it was submitted to the Government, I owe many valuable suggestions; and I am under particular obligations to my colleagues in the Board of Superintendence for a most laborious and ​critical examination of the whole work. Mr. Ellis and Archdeacon Mousley are in a special manner entitled to my thanks; for their criticisms enabled me to correct many imperfections that had otherwise escaped my notice.

In examining the principles inculcated by the best native grammarians, I was assisted by my Teloogoo instructor Woodiagherry Vencatanarrain Ayah, a young bramin of superior intelligence and remarkable acquirements, who, by his own merits alone, subsequently rose to the situation of Head English master at the College of Fort St. George, and lately to the more honorable office of Interpreter to the Supreme Court of judicature at the Presidency. He generally sat by me while I wrote the notes from which this Grammar has been compiled, and I may therefore be said to have availed myself of his aid and advice throughout the work.

I have only further to add that on all intricate points of grammar I have invariably consulted the learned Pundit Putabhi Rama Sastry, Head Sanscrit and Teloogoo master at the College, and where I found the native grammarians at variance, have been regulated chiefly by his opinions, in attempting to reconcile their differences, or in selecting that authority to which the preference has been given.


  1. ↑ Among numerous authorities which may be quoted in support of the concluding part of this statement, I subjoin the following passages from the Travels of Dr. Francis Buchanan, a work containing much statistical information, regarding the provinces in the interior of the Peninsula—“Every where in Karnata the palanquin-bearers are of Telinga descent, and in their own families speak the language of their original country”—“The Woddas or Woddaru are a tribe of Telinga origin, and in their families retain that language; although they are scattered all over the countries where the Tamil and Karnataca tongues are prevalent.”—Speaking of a cast known by the name of Baydaru, he observes—“Those in the North-eastern parts of the Mysore Rajah’s dominions are of Telinga descent, and retain that language.—They seem to be the true Sudra cultivators and military of Telingana, and to have been introduced in great numbers into the southern countries of the Peninsula, when these became subject to Andray or Telingana princes.”
  2. ↑ See the Preface of Maumidi Vencayab, a learned native inhabitant of Masulipatam, to his Teloogoo Dictionary, the copy right of which has been purchased by the Madras Government; and the original authorities therein referred to. Among others, the Adhurvana Vyacurnum, as given in the Andhra Cowmudi, from which the following is a quotation. శ్రీశైల భీమకాళేశ మహేంద్రగిరిసంయుతం- ప్రాకారంతుమహత్కృత్వాత్రీణిద్వారాణిచాకరోత్ - త్రిలోచనోమహేశస్స త్రిశూలంచకరేవహ - త్రిలింగరూపీన్యవసత్ త్రిద్వారేషుగణైవృతః - ఆంధ్రవిష్ణుస్సురయుతోదను జేననిశంభునా - యుద్వా త్రయోదశయుగా హత్వాతంరాక్షసోతమం - అవస త్తత్ర ఋషిబియు తోగోదావరీతటె - తత్కాప్రభృతిక్షేత్రం త్రిలింగమితివిశ్రుతం

    He (alluding to Andhra Vishtnoo, the son of Soochundra hereafter mentioned) having built an immense wall, connecting Shri Shuelum, Bheemeswaram, and Caleswaram, with the Mahendra hills, formed in it three gates, in which the three-eyed Ishwara, bearing the trident in his hand, and attended by a host of divinities, resided in the form of three lingums. Andhra-Vishtnoo, assisted by angels, having fought with the great giant Nishumboo, for thirteen yoogs, killed him in battle, and took up his residence with the sages on the banks of the Godávery, since which time, this country has been named Trilingum. Then follows the passage given in the last Teloogoo quotation in the notes to this introduction.
  3. ↑ Tri in Sanscrit, and Moodoo in the inferior, or Modo or Modooja in the superior dialect of the pure Teloogoo, all mean three.
  4. ↑ “On entering the south gate,” says Captain Mc‘Kenzie, “we descended by steps through a small door to the inner court, where the temple are. In the center was the Pagoda of Mallecarjee, the principal deity worshipped here. It is square, and the roof is terminated by a pyramid of steps, the whole walls and roof on the outside are covered with brass plates, which have been guilt, but the gilding is worn off. From hence I was conducted to the smaller and more ancient temple of Mallecarjee, where he is adored in the figure of a rude stone, which I could just distinguish, thro’ the dark vista of the front buildings, on pillars. Behind this building, an immense fig tree covers with its shade the devotees and attendants, who repose on seats placed round its trunk and carpeted; among these was one Byragy who had devoted himself to a perpetual residence here, his sole subsistence was the milk of a cow which I saw him driving before him an orange colored rag was tied round his loins, and his naked body was besmeared with ashes.” “It appears that the God Mallecarjee is no other than the Lingum to which such reverence is paid by certain casts of Gentoos.” Captain Mc‘Kenzie adds a curious account of the manner in which the lingum was shewn to him, by means of a mirror reflecting the rays of the sun upon it, and describes it as “a small oblong roundish white stone,” “with dark rings, fixed in a silver case.”
  5. ↑ See Wilkes’ South of India.
  6. ↑ The present Nabob of Kurnool, a tributary of the East India Company, in whose territory this Pagoda is situated, collects on this occasion a considerable revenue from the pilgrims; to secure which, he deputes an officer with a certain number of Sepoys: but, with that intolerant bigotry, which more or less influences all who profess the faith of Mahomed, he has resisted every application from the Hindoos to be permitted to repair this very ancient temple, which is now fast falling to decay.
  7. ↑ “I might now” says Captain Blunt “be said to have entered upon those parts of India known by the name of Telingana.—The inhabitants of which are called Telingahs and speak a language peculiar to themselves.—This dialect appears to bear a strong resemblance to what in the Circars is called Gentoos.—After the heat of the day, and length of the march, our situation close to the river had a very refreshing and pleasing effect.—I was highly delighted with the romantic view which the confluence of the Godavery and Baun Gunga rivers now presented.—I could see quite up to the fort Suruncha, and an opening beyond it likewise shewed the junction of the Inderwotty river with the latter.—The blue mountains and distant forests which terminated the prospect rendered the whole a very sublime and interesting scene.—There is a small Pagoda sacred to the Hindoo Goddess Cali, situated on the north east bank of the river, at the confluence, which imparts its name to this passage over the Gunga Godavery, called Calesair Chaut, and annually draws a great concourse of pilgrims, who fr,om ideas of purification come to wash in the waters of the confluent streams.”
  8. ↑ Dr. Buchanan’s travels Vol. III Chapter XVI Page 134—“At Sheraly is a river called Sheraly-tari which comes from a temple on the Ghauts that is termed Bhimesara”—N. B. “Sheraly is placed by Arrowsmith to the South of Onore on the Coast of Canara, under the name of ‘Serowly’—in the latitude of which the boundaries of the three countries abovementioned meet.”
  9. ↑ He adds, in hoc galli gallinacei barbati esse dicuntur, et corvi et psiltaci albi-శ్రీకాకుళము. The Sicacollum of Arrowsmith, which stands in the Masulipatam district, a little above the mouth of the Krishna, is the Sanscrit name for a peculiar red or whitish crow.
  10. ↑ It has been already stated that Tri and Modoga are synonymous terms.
  11. ↑ So intimate is the connexion between these two rivers, that those who carry the sacred water of the Ganges to the south of India, when they arrive on the banks of the Godavery, invariably replace the water of the Ganges, evaporated on the journey, by water taken from its sister stream the Godavery. The whole is notwithstanding considered to be the pure water of the Ganges, and this ceremony is never omitted. If it were, it is believed, and perhaps with reason, that the water would disappear before it could reach Rameswarum.
  12. ↑ In the Vayu Puran the course of the Ganges is thus described.—“The Ganges flows through the Ganᶁharvas, Cinnaras, Yacshas, Racshagas, Vidyaᶁharas. (Uragas or large snakes; these are tribes of demons god and bad in the hill.) Cálapagramacas, Paradas, Svigánas, Svasas, Ceratas, Pulindas, Curavas, in Guru about Tanehsar, Sam-Bharatas, Pnnchalas, C’asi or Benares, Matsyas, Magadhas (or south Hehar) Brahmottaras, Angas, Bangas, Calingas,” &c. Asiatic researches Vol. 8th. Essay on the sacred isles in the west.

    In the Brahmanda Pooran, also, the course of the Ganges is thus described.—“The southern branch goes to Gadhamandana from hill to hill, from stone to stone; it encircles the forest of Gadhamandana or Deva-nandana, whence it is called Alacananda, it goes to the Northern lake, called Manasa, thence to the king of mountains with three summits, thence to the Mountains of Calinga.” Asiatic Researches Vol. 8th. Essay on the sacred isles in the west.
  13. ↑ Asiatic Researches Vol. III article 3d.
  14. ↑ The reader is requested to refer to the conclusion of the second Chapter of the grammar.
  15. ↑ Tilinga is mentioned in the Brahmanda Puran as an inland Country, situated between Casicosala or Benares, and Magadha. Vol. 8th. of the Asiatic Researches. Essay on the sacred isles in the west.
  16. ↑ The participle అగు (the same as అయిన) may be added to each of these words, used adjectively, which thus became తెల్లగు Tellugoo and తేనగు Tenugoo respectively. These derivations, however, are not free from objection, for they are not in strict conformity to the grammatical rules for Sunᶁhi.
  17. ↑ It has been already noticed that Telinga is mentioned in the Brahmunda Pooran, as situated between Casi-cosala and Magadha, that is between Benares and Bahar proper.—Calinga is mentioned in the same Pooran, as situated between Cosala and Banga; in other words, between Benares and Bengal proper.—8th Vol. of the Asiatic Researche.— Essay on the sacred isles of the west.—This proves the two to have been at least contiguous, but the one is generally understood to have been a subdivision of the other.
  18. ↑ Caleswarum is one of the names of the God Shiva, Calingum is the same name for the same deity, only under a different form, namely the form of the mystic lingum.
  19. ↑ Marsden’s Malay Grammar.
  20. ↑ See article VII Vol. 2d of the Asiatic Researches.
  21. ↑ కణ్వస్తుయదాహ | ఆంధ్రవిష్ణోరనుజ్ఞాకృతస్య మద్వ్యాకరణస్యద్రోహీ గురుద్రోహీతి ||

    Kunva said, “He who speaks irreverently of my Grammar, composed by the command of Andhra Vishtnoo, shall be considered as guilty of irreverence to his Priest.” Andhra Cowmudi.
  22. ↑ ఆంధ్ర నాథో మహావిష్ణుర్నిశంభుదనుజాపహా | పురాస్వాయంభువమమోః కాలేకలియౌగేహరిః | కాకులేరాజవర్యస్యసుచంద్రస్యతనూభవః | అభవత్సర్వదేవైశ్చవేష్టితోలోకపూజితః ||

    Hari The King of Andhra, the great Vishtnoo, the destroyer of the giant Nishumbhoo, formerly, in the Caliyoog of the grand period called Swayumbhoova, was born as the son of the chief of kings Soochundra, ruling at Cacolum. Andhra Cowmudi. Then follows the passage quoted in the first note.
  23. ↑ In Teloogoo, the name of this place, and of Chicacole in the Ganjam District, are the same; but the two must not be confounded.
  24. ↑ The following is an extract from the passage here alluded to: (Telugu characters) (Telugu characters)

    Affectionately protecting the inhabitants of his Empire—receiving, with satisfaction, the tribute of foreign Sovereigns, whose kingdoms had been subdued by him, and humbling the pride of those princes who haughtily withheld payment—illuminating the corners of the world with his commands—protecting the whole race of Brumins—shielding the timid who solicited shelter—compassionately bestowing the most excellent and extensive Agraharams on the first born men (Bramins)—enlightening vast wealth by celestial enjoyment—and thus following the precepts of Menu, lived Vishtnoo Vurdhana, the increaser of his race. He, the ornament of the Chalookia family, constantly enjoying the glory of his vast empire—residing, with excessive delight, and with the splendour of the great Indra, in his capital of Rajahmahendra, which is the chief gem of the Vegu Empire, the great ornament of the goddess of the Earth, (encompassed by the waters of all the oceans)—attended, in his superb palace, which is the sent of glory of the whole world, by Ministers, Priests, Generals, Chamberlains, Counsellors, Magistrates, neighbouring princes, and beautiful damsels—and surrounded by Grammarians, skilled in the boundless doctrines of articulate sounds, Historians, acquainted with the Bharata, Rámayanum, and all the Poorans, Great Poets, celebrated for clothing the most pleasing and gentle images in the sweetest verse, famous Philosophers, skilled in all the sublime sciences, and diving into the ocean of abstruse reasoning, and many other learned men—amusing himself with study—deeply interested in agreeable history, and experienced in the rules of justice—sitting, with delight, thus affectionately addressed the venerable and virtuous Nannapa, the Brahmin and affectionate adherent of his family, incessantly devoted to sacrifice and meditation, auther of a copious grammar, skilled in the Sumhetas, fully versed in various Poorans, such as the Bramhanda &c., a meritorious man, the follower of the aphorisms of Apastamba, born in the gotram of Mudgola, commended by virtuous men, pure in his actions, experienced in worldly affairs, in wisdom like Broohusputee, celebrated for composing poetry in both languages, famed for genius, a speaker of truth which is everlasting. The king then proceeds to request that he will translate the Mahabharut.
  25. ↑ This prince must not be confounded with another Vishtnoo Vurdhana, who reigned in the eleventh century of our era, but who was neither of the Chalookia race, nor of the Shiva sect; he was a Tilinga king of the Bellal dynasty, and was converted from the jain religion to the sect of Visbtnoo, by the famous Rama Anuj Achary, the head of the Shri Vaishnavas or Ayengars, one of the three great sects into which the Hindoos of the Peninsula are now divided.
  26. ↑ Page 12 of Vol. 1st.
  27. ↑ This word is pure Teloogoo ఒరుకల్లు, and signifies a single stone, a solid rock, or perhaps ఒరకల్లు a touch stone.
  28. ↑ I am indebted to the friendship of that able and distinguished officer Colonel McKenzie C. B. of the Madras Engineers, now Surveyor General of India, for the following translation of an extract from the Gutpurtee Manuscript in his valuable and extensive collection, containing, in the form of a prophecy, a chronological account of these kings. Numerous inscriptions, and grants of land, in the possesion of Colonel McKenzie confirm the correctness of this account.
    A. S. A. D. Y. M. D.
    1258 1336 1. In the Saleevahan Sakum, 1258, in the year Daatoo, on the 2d of Vysakum month, on the new moon, Hurryhur Raya will commence his reign at Anagoondy.
    1. The whole of his reign will be 14 14„ 14„
    1272 1350 2. After him, his brother Booka Royaloo will succeed in that kingdom and will reign 29 8 8„
    1301 1379 3. Next Hurryhur Royaloo the second will rule 22 22„ 22„
    1323 1401 4. After him Veejaya Booka Royaloo will rule 17 17„ 17„
    1340 1418 5. Upon his death Palla Booka Royaloo will rule 16 16„ 16
    1356 1434 6. After which Gunda Dava Royaloo will rule 20 20„ 20„
    1376 1454 7. After him Raja Saker Royaloo will rule 20„ 9 9„
    1376 1455 8. After that Veejoyooloo will rule 20„ 10 10„
    1378 1456 9. Proudha or Pratapa Dava Royaloo will rule 21 21„ 21„
    1399 1477 10. After him Veera Royaloo will rule 4 4„ 4„
    1403 1481 11. After him Mallicar Royaloo will govern 6 6„ 6„
    1409 1487 12. Ramachundra Royaloo will next rule 1 1„ 1„
    1410 1488 13. Veeroopacha Royaloo will govern 2 2„ 2„
    1412 1490 14. Narasinga Royaloo will rule 5 5„ 5„
    1417 1495 15. After him Naraxa Royaloo will rule (including 5 years in the name of) 13 13„ 13„
    1426 1504 16. His son Veera Narsimha Royaloo from the Cycle years Raktachee A. S. 1426 13 13„ 13„
    1430 1509 17. The second son of Narasa Royaloo, named Krishna Royaloo, will rule, from the Cycle year Sookla of the Visaka month 21 21„ 21„
    1452 1530 18. From the Cycle year Veecrooty Achoota Dava Royaloo will reign 12 12„ 12„
    1464 1542 19. From thence Salica Timma Rauze, from the beginning of the Cycle year Soobacroot in the Jasta month, Rama Royaloo will rule 22 years in the name of 22 22„ 22„
    1486 1564 20. Sadasevoo Royaloo and keeping him in his possession, the Kingdom of Veejeyanagur will then end with Rama Royaloo.
    1451 1569 20. The country will be in great confusion then for 5 5„ 5„
    1451 1569 21. In the Cycle year Pramodoota Teroomal Royaloo will establish himself as King, at Penoogonda, and will rule 5„ 11 11„
    1494 1572 22. His son Sree Runga Royaloo will then reign from the Cycle year Angeerasa of the 10th of Vysakam 14 14„ 14„
    1507 1585 23. After which, from the Cycle Paardeva of the 10th of Maugum of the full moon Vencataputty Royaloo will rule 28 8 15
    23. After him, of the Kings of Chundra race none will remain; and foreign kings will rule the land, deriving their authority from no legal right
    1536 1614 24. First Chicka Royaloo will rule 28„ 4 4„
    1552 1630 25. After him Rama Rauze changing his true name, to that of Ramodava Rayel for 15 5 5„
    25. After this, the Country will be in great disorder for some time, and prodigies and portentous omens will appear between the year Bahoodanya and Nundana 15 15„ 15„

    (Here the Account terminates in a prophetical annunciation of a Deliverer of the Hindoo Race.) From circumstances, observes Colonel Mc‘Kenzie, we may infer that this account was written A. D. 1630.

  29. ↑ By an inscription on the great tower erected over the grand entrance into the famous Shiva temple at Conjeveram, which is supposed to be the highest building of the kind in India, we find that it boasts of this prince as its founder.
  30. ↑ Having heard that a number of poems, engraved on some thousand sheets of copper, had been preserved by the pious care of a family of Bramins in the temple on the sacred hill at Tripetty, I deputed a Native for the purpose of examining them; but, with the exception of a treatise on Grammar, of which a copy was taken, the whole collection was found to contain nothing but voluminous hymns in praise of the deity.
  31. ↑ The following is an extract from the act of the British Parliament to which I allude.—“And be it further enacted, that it shall be lawful for the Governor General in Council to direct, that out of any surplus which may remain of the rents, revenues, and profits, arising from the said Territorial acquisitions, after defraying the expenses of the Military, Civil, and Commercial Establishments, and paying the Interest of the Debt, in manner herein-after provided, a sum of not lees than one Lack of Rupees in each year shall be set apart arid applied to the revival and improvement of literature, and the encouragement of the learned Natives of India, and for the introduction and promotion of a knowledge of the science among the Inhabitants of the British Territories in India.
  32. ↑ The affecting tale of the Zemindar of Boobily, related by Orme, is one of many that might be quoted, in elucidation of the nice sense of honor, and romantic bravery, inherent in this fine race of men. Our want of sufficient attention to their habits and customs, rather than any callous disregard for their prejudices, has occasionally driven others of this tribe to similar acts of self destruction, which are much to be deprecated, and which, indelibly imprinted on the minds of the people, materially affect the popularity of our Government.
  33. ↑ See the Adhurvana Vyacurnum, as given in the Audhra Cowmudi. (Telugu characters) The adherents of Anᶁhra Vishtnoo (before mentioned) who then resided on the banks of the Godavery spoke Tutsama words, (Sanscrit derivatives). In the course of time, these words, not being properly articulated by the unlearned, by the changes or obliteration of letters, or by being contracted, a fourth, or a half, became Tudb havas, (Sanscrit corruptions.) Those words consisting of nouns, verbals, and verbs, created by the God Brimha, before the time of Hari, the Lord of Anᶁhra, are called Ucꞕha, (pure.)
  34. ↑ This is the prince who is now worshipped as a divinity at Siccacollum on the river Krishna, and who was the patron of Kunva, the first Teloogoo Grammarian.
  35. ↑ The reader is requested to refer to the irregular దేశ్యము nouns.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=A_grammar_of_the_Teloogoo_language/Introduction&oldid=10055497"