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Title : Regarding need to declare ‘Telugu’ as a classical language.
SHRI KINJARAPU YERRANNAIDU (SRIKAKULAM): Sir, the growing globalisation in the economic sphere has its backlash in the ethnic, cultural, linguistic and other spheres of communities all over the world. India, with more than a dozen major languages and scores of sub-cultures, is no exception. The recent declaration by the Government of India regarding Tamil as a classical language is but an offshoot of the problem of identity of a majority community speaking that language and a response to a long-standing demand made by that community.
As per the record, the word ‘Andhra’ first occurs in the Itareya Brahmana of 7th century B.C. This presupposes the existence of the people and language by that name some centures earlier. An eminent linguist, in fact, concluded that Telugu branched off from the Dravidian family and acquired a separate identity around 10th century B.C. (Dr. Blt. Krishna Murthy – The Dravidian Languages Cambridge University Press 2003). This then puts the antiquity of the language at about 3000 years. Telugu appears on the coins issued by Satavahana kings during 1st century B.C. and later on the inscriptions of the Buddhist stupa of Amaravati in the present Guntur District. Names of Telugu places and personal names occur from 1st century B.C. in almost all available inscriptions.
I, therefore, request the Central Government to declare ‘Telugu’ as an ancient and classical language.