Mythologies of the Telugu Tribe

Telugu tribe (Telugu: తెలుగువారు, romanized: Teluguvāru), also called Āndhras, are an ethno-linguistic group who speak the Telugu language and are native to the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Yanam district of Puducherry. They are the most populous of the four major Dravidian linguistic groups. Telugu is the fourth most spoken language in India and the 14th most spoken native language in the world. A significant number of Telugus also reside in the Indian states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Maharashtra. Members of the Telugu diaspora are spread across countries like United States, Australia, Malaysia, Mauritius, UAE and others. Telugu is the fastest-growing language in the United States. It is also a protected language in South Africa. Andhra is an ethnonym used for Telugu people since antiquity. The earliest mention of the Andhras occurs in Aitareya Brahmana (c. 800 BCE) of the Rigveda. In the Mahabharata, the infantry of Satyaki was composed of a tribe called the Andhras, known for their long hair, tall stature, sweet language, and mighty prowess. They were also mentioned in the Buddhist Jataka tales. Megasthenes reported in his Indica (c. 310 BCE) that the Andhras, living in the Godavari and Krishna river deltas, were famous for their formidable military strength, which was second only to that of the Maurya Empire in the entire Indian subcontinent. The first major Andhra polity was the Satavahana dynasty (2nd century BCE–2nd century CE) which ruled over the entire Deccan plateau and even distant areas of western and central India. They established trade relations with the Roman Empire and their capital city, Amaravati was the most prosperous city in India in 2nd century CE. Inscriptions in Old Telugu script (Vengi script) were found as far away as Indonesia and Myanmar.

The Telugu people are an ethnic group that speaks Telugu as a native language and/or trace their origin to the Indian states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Large populations of the Telugu people are also found in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, and Odisha. The Telugu language is spoken by the Telugu people, especially those in the states of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and the territory of Puducherry. A further 3.7 million live in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. There are three dialects of the Telugu language: Andhra, which is spoken in the coastal regions of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana dialect which is spoken in Telangana, and Rayalaseema dialect that is used in the Rayalaseema districts of Andhra Pradesh. The Telugu people are known for their rich culture that includes a wide range of performing arts, drama, music, arts and crafts, and cuisine. Both men and women engage in various dance forms such as Tappeta Gullu, Kolattam, Kuchipudi, Bhagotham, and Dhimsa. The ancient cuisines of the Telugu people in Andhra Pradesh are known as the spiciest in India. Telugu is the fastest growing language in the United States. Since the beginning of the decade, the number of speakers has increased by 86% although it is still outside the 20 most spoken languages in the country other than English. By 2018, the number of Telugu speakers had risen to about 400,000 compared to 250,000 in 2010. The growth of the language in the US is attributed to the link between American technology and engineering companies to the largest Telugu-speaking city of Hyderabad. In the mid-1990s, the rapid growth ICT in the US lead to increased demand for software engineers, most of whom were hired from the Indian states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

In particular, the influence of Telugus, also known as Andhras, on shaping the course of South Indian’s medieval and early modern history is particularly noteworthy. Nor is it insignificant, as Telugu is the largest South Indian language by speakers, and the fourth largest language in India today (my family is of Telugu origin). In fact, Telugu warrior nayaks (chiefs) were the ruling class over much of South India — including ethnic Tamil and Kannada areas — and were in some ways, served the same function as the rajput warrior clans of northern India. The last dynasty to rule Sri Lanka before the annexation of the Kingdom of Kandy by the British, were also Telugu nayaks. Perhaps this history is obscured because the Telugus were ruled by several intermediary empires, such as the Mughals, Marathas, Nizams of Hyderabad, and the British, between their heydays and the present. Unlike the rajputs, the nayaks didn’t always form a corporate group. It may seem as though the Telugus had always inhabited present-day Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, at least from the the time the first historical records, about 2,200 years ago (the Telugus of those two states diverged because most of Telangana came under Muslim rule after the fall of the Telugu Kakatiya Dynasty in 1323, while Andhra Pradesh was ruled by the Hindu Reddy and Vijayanagara empires.) After all, ancient inscriptions from the Satavahana Empire, a breakaway state of the Mauryan Empire in the Deccan, contain some ancient Telugu, in addition to a language ancestral to Marathi. Yet, most Telugu inscriptions found between the formation of the Satavahanas, around 230 BCE and around 1,000 CE, come from a narrow, but fertile region between the Krishna and Godavari rivers on the central and northern Andhra coast (there is a strong correlation in South Indian history between inscriptional languages and ethnic geography). The Andhras were a relatively minor group throughout most of history, compared to the much more prominent Tamils and Kannadigas. In other words, Telugus in ancient times did not inhabit the vast majority of what is today a Telugu speaking region, most of which is situated on a plateau west of the coastal Eastern Ghat mountain range.

The Sri Lankan Telugus are an ethnic group from Sri Lanka who trace their origins to Telugu-speaking regions centuries ago. They are commonly known in English as Sri Lankan Gypsies, in Sinhala as Ahikuntaka. However, these terms are considered as offensive by the community, who call themselves as Telugu. They are the only nomadic group of people living in Sri Lanka. They live in small palmyra huts for approximately one week in one place. Their ancestral language is an old form/dialect of Telugu, though most now speak Sinhala. Various governments, NGOs and missionary societies have made attempts to settle them down, and thus some are settled in villages. Their traditional occupations are fortune telling, snake charming and training monkeys and dogs for performances, though modernisation has forced many into wage labour. Those who are settled in resettlement villages are subsistence farmers and farm hands to other farmers. They also speak Sinhalese based on their area of settlement. Most seem to be settled in the eastern Batticaloa district. The traditional faith is a form of Shaivism, though a large number of them had converted to Buddhism and some to Christianity. According to a 2017 survey by the Government of Sri Lanka, their population is ~4,000 and it is estimated that the actual population is 125,000 and most Telugu Sri Lankans recognise themselves as Sinhalese people.

Telugu (తెలుగు;['t̪elʊgʊ]), a Dravidian language (South-Central Dravidian languages), is the official language of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, and one of the twenty-two official languages of India. Including non-native speakers, it is the most-spoken Dravidian language, and the third most spoken language in India after Hindi and Bengali. Telugu is mainly spoken in the state of Andhra Pradesh and in the neighboring states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa, and Chhattisgarh in India. It is also spoken in Bahrain, Fiji, Malaysia, Mauritius, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, and the United Kingdom, where there is a considerable Telugu diaspora. Telugu belongs to the South-central Dravidian language subfamily, whose members originated from the Proto-Dravidian spoken in the central part of the Deccan plateau. Most of the songs (kirtanas) of Carnatic music are in Telugu language. Telugu has a long literary tradition, which experienced its "golden age" during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries C.E., often referred to as the "Southern Period." Kandukuri Viresalingam Pantulu (1848-1919) is known as the father of modern Telugu literature. His novel, Rajasekhara Charitamu, inspired by the Vicar of Wakefield, marked the beginning of a dynamic of socially conscious Telugu literature and its transition to the modern period. Kanyasulkam (Bride-Money), the first social play in Telugu by Gurazada Appa Rao, was followed by the progressive movement, the free verse movement and the Digambara style of Telugu verse.

The Telugu diaspora is a large and vibrant community found in almost every country where there are Indian-origin populations. But they are migrants. So when an indigenous, Telugu-speaking tribe believed to have been around for centuries outside India — in Sri Lanka, to be precise — was identified, it attracted the attention of researchers. The CEO of Andhra Pradesh Creativity and Cultural Commission (APCCC), Vizai Bhaskar, said on Tuesday that a team of anthropologists and linguists will soon leave for the neighbouring country to gather more information on the tribe. Speaking to The Hindu , he said the Ahikuntaka (Telugu tribe) had been living on the island for many centuries but its population was on the decline. “As per our information, just a few hundred of them are left. They are not migrants from India but natives of Sri Lanka. They are believed to have lived there even before the Tamils,” he said. Both the APCCC and the Cultural Centre for Vijayawada and Amaravathi (CCVA) will take up the project and decide on the team members soon. The last king of Sri Lanka before the British took over in 1817 was of Telugu origin, he said. “Our team will collect all the facts about the existence of Telugus in Sri Lanka. As a Telugu-speaking State, it is our responsibility to gather information about our legacy.”

Telugu (/ˈtɛlʊɡuː/; తెలుగు, Telugu pronunciation: [ˈt̪eluɡu]) is a classical Dravidian language native to the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where it is also the official language. Spoken by about 96 million people (2022), Telugu is the most widely spoken member of the Dravidian language family, and one of the twenty-two scheduled languages of the Republic of India. It is one of the few languages that has primary official status in more than one Indian state, alongside Hindi and Bengali. Telugu is one of the six languages designated as a classical language by the Government of India. It is the 14th most spoken native language in the world. Modern Standard Telugu is based on the dialect of erstwhile Krishna, Guntur, East Godavari and West Godavari districts of Coastal Andhra. Telugu is also spoken in the states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and the union territories of Puducherry and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It is also spoken by members of the Telugu diaspora spread across countries like United States, Australia, Malaysia, Mauritius, UAE, Saudi Arabia and others. Telugu is the fastest-growing language in the United States. It is also a protected language in South Africa and is offered as an optional third language in schools in KwaZulu-Natal province. According to Mikhail S. Andronov, Telugu split from the Proto-Dravidian language around 1000 BCE. The earliest Telugu words appear in Prakrit inscriptions dating to c. 4th century BCE, found in Bhattiprolu, Andhra Pradesh. Telugu label inscriptions and Prakrit inscriptions containing Telugu words have been dated to the era of Emperor Ashoka (257 BCE), as well as to the Satavahana and Vishnukundina periods. Inscriptions in Old Telugu script were found as far away as Indonesia and Myanmar. Telugu has been in use as an official language for over 1,400 years and has served as the court language for numerous dynasties in Southern and Eastern India, including the Eastern Chalukyas, Eastern Gangas, Kakatiyas, Vijayanagara Empire, Qutb Shahis, Madurai Nayaks, and Thanjavur Nayaks. It was also used as an official language outside its homeland, even by non-Telugu dynasties such as the Thanjavur Marathas in Tamil Nadu.