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.[1]
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[2] 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
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 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.
