'Telugu language has 4000-year history'

HYDERABAD: Telugu, which got classical language status, has a 4,000-year old history. This was revealed by a city-based author S Venugopal in his book titled 'Vishwa Vijetha' . 

Venugopal claimed that the word Telugu derived from 'Trikalinga.' Later it became 'Tenugu' and people in the Deccan plateau used to call it as 'Telanga' and now it has become 'Telugu' . In fact, historians found a word 'Telangana' near Jeedimetla (earlier Jeedimatta ) of Hyderabad city on stone inscriptions dating back to 13-14 AD. 

Interestingly, the original pronouncement of 'Telugu' is Tel and Agu. Tel means 'south corner.' A poet Sanganabhatla Narasaiah said that river Godavari was called as 'Telivaha' and Telinadi.' Gradually, Telinadi has become 'Telugu.' 

The word 'Telanga' is also used in the Mahabharata, Venugopal asserted. He claimed that during the Mahabharata time, Anga Desam was famous for female elephants . Anga means a female elephant. These elephants ate only 'Tala' trees. So these elephants were referred to as 'Tala Angadulu' and later became Tala Anga then Talanga and now Telugu.During King Harishchandra's regime, the Telugu language come into limelight , he added.

Courtesy: TOI