56. Vegi, near Ellore, in the Krishna district, and Rajahmundry in the Godavari district were for many centuries, the capitals of the powerful Andhra kingdom of Vengi at whose court Telugu was first cultivated. Under the Eastern Chalukyas, the dominions of the kings of Vengi included the greater part of the Vizagapatam district and extended in the south-west into the Nellore district. The inland parts of the Telugu country were absorbed during this period by the kingdoms of Dravida, Karnata, or Maharastra.
57. The first eminent Telugu poet whose work is extant, the poet whose language set the standard for the literary dialect in after-times, lived at the court of king Raja Raja of Rajahmundry and was an old resident of the capital. He claims to belong to a Brahman family which was attached to the royal house for generations.
58. Historical conditions point to but one conclusion that the Chalukyan court at Rajahmundry set the standard both for speech and for literature, and that the influence of that standard extended to the utmost limits of the kingdom of Vengi. Beyond it, the standard was carried by the influence of court-poets and pandits -- literary dictators whose rule was not circumscribed by the narrow limits of a kingdom. To this day Rajahmundry maintains its pre-eminence in literary activity.
59. There is overwhelming evidence to prove that a standard speech exists in Telugu and that it is no other than the polite speech of the Godavari and Krishna districts.
In Vol. IV of the Linguistic Survey of India for which Drs. Grierson and Sten Konow, and the late Rao Bahadur V.Venkayya were responsible, the Telugu of the Northern Circars is treated as standard Telugu.
“The dialect spoken in the Northern Circars is usually considered, the purest form of the language.” (Vide p.ST7).
