A history of Telugu literature; - Cristo Raul

INTRODUCTORY 17
ruled practically the whole of middle India in the beginning
of the Christian era. But the information at our disposal
does not enable us to say whether they used Telugu in any
form. It is probable that they spoke a form of Prakrit,
from which Telugu has descended.
The lack of antiquity in the Telugu language is felt as a
reproach by some writers, who believe that the greatness of
a language depends on its age. This has given rise to
later legends, one of which, tracing the origin of Telugu to
the fourth quarter of Krita Yuga (the Golden Age), is as
follows : Agnimitra lost his eyes owing to excessive heat.
He prayed to the sun-god, who, pleased with his devotion,
taught him a language so potent that it restored him his
eyesight. This language was called Andhra Bkasha, as it
dispelled darkness. We are also told that each yuga had
its particular form of Tejugu and that in Kali Yuga (the
Present Age), Kalinga Andhra and Raudra Andhra were
established by Nandivardhana and his disciple, Devala Raya,
in the reign of Satakarni.
Andhra Lipi the Telugu script. In its current fonn
this was stereotyped about the thirteenth century A.D. Palaeologists
have traced the growth of Telugu script from remote
ancestry.
About the fourth century B.C. a type of character
known as Brdhml Lipi was evolved in Northern India, and
gradually spread to the southern portion of the continent
under the name of Dravida Brdhml. This Dravidian
Brahmi, different in some respects from the Mauryan script
of Asoka inscriptions, is the common parent of all South
Indian scripts. It has undergone modifications in different
places and at different times, of which we may mention a
few important variations that are in the line of modern
Telugu script. One modification is found in the Guha
Sasanas (cave edicts) of the Andhra kings, another in the
inscriptions of Vengi Desa, the original homeland of the
Telugus. There is not much difference between the Guha and
Verigi Lipis. The letters are crooked, though curvilinear.
In the time of the Chalukya kings we find a further change in
the characters. It is in the eleventh century A.D. that we find
the script taking a shape which, to the untrained eye, seems
to have clear affinity to modern characters and ; Nanniah, the