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INTRODUCTION.
vii

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[1] 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.[2]—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.[3] Andhra, whence the first ancient dynasty of Hindoo Emperors appear to have derived their name,[4] 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

  1. ↑ 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.
  2. ↑ 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.
  3. ↑ Marsden’s Malay Grammar.
  4. ↑ See article VII Vol. 2d of the Asiatic Researches.
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