Telugu

Telugu is the most widely spoken of the Dravidian languages, native to the Andhra coast and Deccan plateau of south-eastern India. Linguists estimate that it split from Proto-Dravidian around 1000 BCE, the first major branch to become distinct.

Telugu words appear in Prakrit inscriptions of the fourth century BCE, while the first long inscription entirely in Telugu dates to 575 CE. Its written form descends from a Brahmi-derived script once shared with Kannada.

Nannayya's Telugu Mahabharata of 1022 fixed a literary idiom enriched by Sanskrit. Telugu served as a court language under the Eastern Chalukyas, Kakatiyas and Vijayanagara Empire, whose rulers patronised a golden age of Telugu poetry; it became a prestige language of high culture and Carnatic music across much of southern India.