Telugu script

Telugu
Script type	Abugida
Direction	Left-to-right
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Telu (340), ​Telugu
Unicode
Unicode alias	Telugu
Unicode range	U+0C01–U+0C6F

Telugu script, an abugida from the Brahmic family of scripts, is used to write Telugu, a Dravidian Language found in the Southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh as well as several other neighboring states. The Telugu script is derived from old Kannada script which is also known as the Kannada-Telugu script and developed independently at the same time as modern Kannada script which is why it has strong resemblance with it.

General characteristics

File:Brahmi Script.gif

Brahmi script.

Telugu is a syllabic language. Similar to most languages of India, each symbol in Telugu script represents a complete syllable. There is very little scope for confusion and spelling problems In that sense, it is a WYSIWYG script. This form of script is considered to be the most scientific by the linguists. This syllabic script has been achieved by the use of a set of basic symbols, a set of modifier symbols and rules for modification. Officially, there are eighteen vowels, thirty-six consonants, and three dual symbols. Of these, thirteen vowels, thirty five consonants are in common usage There are two alternate symbols, viz., nakāra pollu and valapala gilaka (giraka) for ‘n’ and ‘r’ consonant sounds, respectively. In addition, symbols used in Sanskrit such as the avagraha are also permitted. Although rare in modern Telugu, use of one symbol from Tamil script ('zh') was also allowed. Each basic letter has at least one more symbol of union to be used when it is a subordinate sound to one or more consonants. Telugu uses the same decimal system that is commonly referred to as the Hindu-Arabic system of numerals. It has its own symbols for numerals. Most often however, modern numerals are used in place of traditional numeric symbols.

Telugu script has the capability to represent almost the entire phonetic spectrum of all Indian (and most world) languages. For example, the only sound of the English language not represented fully in Telugu (in a theoretical sense) is the ‘a’ sound as in ‘apple.’ However, the sound is common in some commonly spoken words such as vaccaanu, veLLaanu, etc. Of the sounds indigenous to India, the current Telugu script does not represent the ‘zh’ (retroflex approximant) sound of tamiL (tamizh) properly. Centuries ago, this sound was a regular part of Telugu pronunciation. The associated sound however, has subsequently merged with retroflex stop Da or retroflex lateral La . Theoretically, it is also the closest sound to the Hindi letter ra/Da as in sarak/saDak. The European/Middle Eastern sound ‘F’ as in ‘father’ is not part of the original Telugu script. But the script has adapted itself to an almost seamless representation of this sound using ‘Pha.’ It must be pointed out that each living linguistic tradition includes several sounds and nuances that are not entirely represented by the rigid written script. However, all the sounds and nuances are familiar to the practitioners of that language and will not cause any problems. The ease with which the sounds and their corresponding character associations can be identified defines the ‘soundness’ of the script. In that sense, Telugu stands as one of the best scripts in the world while maintaining an extensive sound base.

Since all Indic scripts have descended from brāhmī, the similarities between modern devanāgarī and telugu scripts will become apparent upon close observation. For example, the devanāgarī (Hindi) letter ‘ka’ if turned by 90 degrees on the side will resemble ‘ka’ in kannaDa. If the central bar in this symbol is omitted, it becomes telugu ‘ka.’ The top bar in devanāgarī is replaced by short bar with a curl at the end in kannada. It becomes a full-fledged tick mark in telugu. Many such simple comparisons can be made. During this process of assimilating braahmee script, telugu took in all the symbolic representations of prakrit. It also retained its original sounds that are common to Dravidian linguistic family. These include the short forms of vowels ‘e’ and ‘o’ and consonants 'La' and '~ra' (banDi ra) among other things. For completeness sake, Telugu also invented a couple of letters not generally listed in Sanskrit (long forms of vowels ‘R’ and 'alu') although they are not being used commonly at the present time.

Telugu script has a basic tendency towards circular forms. All the letters and their modifiers can be derived by a combination of parts of circles.

Brahmi script and Telugu

File:Brahmi Chart.jpg

Brahmi script chart.

The Nanda kings (and Mauryan emperors who succeeded them) at Pataliputra adopted a script inspired by it for all their official communications. From this developed the Brahmi script and eventually the modern day Devanagari. The figures below show the early brahmi script.

The Andhra (Satavahana) dynasty introduced the brahmi to the present day Kannada and Telugu regions. The earliest inscriptions found in the Tamil land belong to more or less the same period. A number of early Satavahana coins and other remains were found in Tamil Nadu. It is therefore reasonable to assume that Satavahanas introduced the script to the Tamil country also. The Satavahanas were, for some time, vassals of the Mauryan Empire. Mauryan Emperor Asoka the great (reign: 269-232 BCE) and the rise of Buddhism played stellar roles in championing this spread of writing. Thus, Telugu and all the other south Indian languages had their scripts descended from the brahmi. There are direct or indirect references to 'lipi', 'likh', 'lekha', 'likhita' etc., in the literature belonging to the periods before this perceived spread of brahmi.

Evolution of alphabet

Prakrit was the official language of communication used by the Satavahana Kings who were also referred to as the Saatakarnis and Andhras (Andhra BhRtya) in the Puranas. There is some evidence that the kings used a mother tongue that is different from the official language. It is highly likely that this tongue was a mixture of the precursor to modern Telugu and derivatives from other languages such as prakrit. The official Prakrit dialect was based on Sanskrit. But several pure Telugu words had crept into it. In fact, many Prakrit texts such as 'gaathaa sapta Sati', 'vajjaa laggam' etc., had many Telugu words. This Prakrit was originally written in the northern Brahmi.

This script was quickly subjected to change to accommodate the writing practices and additional sounds of south Indian languages. The evolution of the alphabet in the Telugu land over the centuries is given in the two figures below:

File:Telugu Script Chart a.jpg

Figure T1: Telugu script chart A

File:Telugu Script Chart b.jpg

Figure T2: Telugu script chart B

The first row in each figure represents current Telugu alphabets. (Modern Telugu has fifty-six primary characters.) The second row gives the Mauryan Brahmi from the third century BCE. This is the script used to proclaim the imperial edicts about Buddhist principles of compassion and empathy.

Row three in figure T1 is the third century BCE script found on the urn containing a portion of Buddha's mortal remains. The urn was the central object at the great monastery in Bhattiprolu in central Andhra Pradesh. There were other such famous sacred containers housing Buddha's teeth or bones at Amaravati, Nagarjuna Konda, Danta Puram and other Stupas. Some of these Stupas were constructed by the Naga kings of Andhra even before the Mauryan and Satavahana rule.

Row four in figue T1 describes the first century CE script used by Paisaci, Maharashtri Prakrit, and other southern dialects under the Satavahana dynasty. This dynasty ruled modern day Andhra Pradesh and parts of Karnataka and Maharashtra between the fourth and third century BCE. Several kings of this dynasty had Maharashtrian wives among others. In the example below notice the reference to Kshatrapa king Nahapana. Kshatrapa (Kshatrava) was the title of Saka kings. This particular Saka king was defeated by Gautamiputra Satakarni (reigned 78-102 CE). Kings of this dynasty performed several acts of religious merit. Among those was the creation of cave dwellings for Buddhist monks. Several such caves are found in Andhra Pradesh (e.g., undavalli, mogalrājapuram-Vijayawada) and Maharashtra (e.g., Nasik and Kanheri-Bombay).

Telugu inscriptions

Asokan Brahmi inscription

File:Asokan Brahmi inscription.jpg

Figure S1: Asokan Brahmi inscription (third century BCE).

Figure S1 shows an example of Asokan inscriptions from rumminde. The reference to devānapiyena piyadasina indicates ashoka (devānāmpriya, priyadarśi) and sakyamuni refers to Buddha. Similar inscriptions have been found in Kurnool District of Andhra Pradesh.

Satavahana cave inscription

File:Satavahana cave inscription.jpg

Figure S2: First century CE Satavahana cave inscription from Nasik in Maharashtra.

After 218 CE, the Satavahana dynasty was succeeded by its vassals, the Ikshvakus, whose script is shown in row 5 of figure T1. Although only three kings ruled in this dynasty, they commanded the love and affection of the people. Even today, anything very old is referred by Telugu people as 'that from the time of Ikshvakus.'

Ikshvaku inscription

File:Ikshvaku inscription.jpg

Figure S3: Third century CE Ikshvaku inscription.

The sixth row of figure T1 shows the north Indian Brahmi used by the Gupta empire in the fourth century CE. Although the northern and southern scripts are still very similar, we can notice the divergence from this point onwards.

Salankayana Nandivarma inscription

The Salankayana script of the fifth Century is given in the seventh row of figure T1. Salankayanas and Vishnukundinas were two of the many dynasties that succeeded the Ikshvakus. From their time, the script for Telugu and Kannada languages began clearly separating from that of the other south Indian and north Indian dialects. The following is an example of Salankayana inscription from fourth century CE. They ruled between 300 CE and 420 CE with vengi as the capital. Both Salankayanas and Vishnukundinas were vassals under pallava kings who ruled from southern Telugu and northern Tamil lands. Notice the change over from Prakrit to Sanskrit during this time.

File:Salankayana Nandivarma inscription.jpg

Figure S4: Fourth century CE Salankayana Nandivarma inscription.

Salankayanas were succeeded by Vishnukundinas kings from vinukonda. In fact, Vishnukundinas is a Sanskritized name for vinukonda. They ruled three or four central coastal districts between 420 and 611 CE from vinukonda, vengi and vijayawada. They seem to have patronized the great Kumarila Bhatta (c.686?-c.745?) who propounded Purva mimamsa' philosophy and his disciple Prabhakara Pandita. An inscription from their time is given below. Notice the reference to Lord Parvata Swami (of kOTappa konDa) and eleven Asvamedha yajnas. These kings followed the lead of Ikshvaku kings in performing the Horse sacrifices. The Pallavas also followed the same lead.

Vishnukundina inscription

File:Vishnukundina inscription.jpg

Figure S5: Sixth century CE Vishnukundina inscription.

Around the time of Vishnukundinas, a development of great significance in the history of Telugu language took place in the modern day rayalaseema. All the royal inscriptions till that day used either Prakrit or Sanskrit. This was in spite of the fact that there was a well developed local language in the Telugu land. Beginning with the Ikshvaku dynasty, the Royal courts started to increasingly replace Prakrit for its predecessor, the Sanskrit. By the time of vishnukundina dynasty, Sanskrit had gained a pre-eminent status. This powerful trend towards increasing Sanskritization was reversed by the Chola kings who ruled from renaadu. This corresponds roughly to the modern day Cuddapah, Eastern Chittoor, Southern Nellore and surrounding areas). They were vassals under the southern Pallava kings. They broke with the prevailing fashion and introduced the tradition of writing Royal proclamations in the local (Telugu) language. The earliest available inscription containing Telugu sentences comes from these Chola kings and is dated to 573-576 CE. These Telugu Chola kings had eventually gained prominence and filled the vacuum left by the end of Pallava dynasty. During the next fifty years, Telugu inscriptions appeared in the neighboring Ananthapuram and all the surrounding regions. Their act of patronizing Telugu over Sanskrit had caught on and other kings in the Telugu land had begun to follow their lead. The first available Telugu inscription in the coastal Andhra Pradesh comes from about 633 CE. Around the same time, the Chalukya kings of Telangana also started using Telugu for inscriptions.

Pallava Narasimha Varma I inscription

File:Pallava Narasimha Varma I inscription.jpg

Figure S6: Pallava Narasimha Varma I inscription.

In the meantime, Pallavas were gaining prominence in the Tamil country. The origin of Pallavas is still a subject of speculation. They were perhaps the descendents of the Saka Pahlava warriors from ancient Iran. Over the centuries, they wandered over western India and sporadically waged wars with many dynasties. Satavahana kings subdued them around the time of Christ. They might then have settled in the northern Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh. This area is still referred to as Palnadu or Pallava Nadu and is the scene of one the central events in Telugu history (the twelfth century war of Palnadu). These Telugu Pallavas eventually gained prominence and set up small kingdoms. As they grew more powerful, a branch of these Pallavas had migrated to the Tamil country. There they had established one of the most cherished kingdoms in Tamil history. Their capitol was Kanchi, close the border between Tamil and Telugu lands. Although they were responsible for the destruction of much of the composite Hindu-Buddhist-Jain legacy of Ikshvaku kings in terms of education, fine arts and architecture, they also took on the Ikshvaku zeal for building and sculpture and evolved their own styles. The earliest available inscriptions with Tamil content were from the time of the rise of Pallava influence. By the time Pallavas moved to the Tamil country from Telugu lands, Sanskrit gained its prominence in South India and displaced Prakrit. The Pallavas took this newfound interest to Tamil Nadu and patronized some of the most illustrious Sanskrit poets like Bharavi and Dandin. At that time, Tamil (and Sanskrit in the Tamil land) used to be written in the "pallava grantham" script. Row 8 of figure T1 lists this script. Modern Tamil script eventually descended from it. A great number of south-east Asian languages including Thai and Malay had adapted variants of this grantham script and Telugu script over the centuries. A detailed example is given below. The language used is Sanskrit.

Later developments

Although Kannada evolved from the southern sub-family of old Dravidian and hence has a greater affinity with Tamil than Telugu, the scripts of the two languages were tied together for over two thousand years. This was mainly possible because telugu nadu and its neighbor karri nadu (mostly consisting of the present day states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh) were ruled by several kings for over two thousand years who owed their origins and/or allegiance jointly to both regions. The Satavahanas influenced the northern Karnataka region for a long time before and after Christ. In fact, the earliest references to Satavahanas occur at the border between the modern day Andhra and Karnataka States. Bellari, Anantapur and Kurnool districts seem to be the first home of these kings. This region was the first to be referred to as Andhraapatha. Between the 5th and 9th Centuries, Rashtrakutas who ruled from Maharashtra and parts of northern Karnataka dominated the Telugu land for brief periods of time. In the sixth century, Chalukyas began their ascent over Kannada country and eventually over Telugu lands. From many indications, it appears that the present day Rayalaseema in Andhra Pradesh was the first home of Chalukyas. As early as 1st Century CE, they were mentioned as being the vassals and chieftains under the Satavahana rule. Their place of residence at that time was the Cuddapah area. They apparently migrated to the northern Karnataka area after suffering loses at the hands of Pallava kings. They eventually established one of the most brilliant and powerful empires of South Indian history. At their peak, they controlled the better part of western and southern India. They re-entered the Telugu land via the present day Telangana. This region was their strong hold for over six centuries. Although they tended to favor Kannada in the beginning, it is in Telangana that they re-learned Telugu. When the dynasty had branched off into Western and Eastern kingdoms, the eastern branch(es) had completely become Telugu speaking. Both branches continued to patronize Telugu and Kannada. The 'trinity' (ratna traya) of early Kannada literature Pampa, Ponna and Ranna all lived in Telugu lands far from the border (because of their origin or patronage). More than any single ruling clan, it is the Chalukyas who influenced the modern form of Telugu script and its affinity with modern Kannada script.

File:Chalukya Bhima II inscription.jpg

Figure S7: Tenth century Chalukya Bhima II inscription.

Rows 9, 10 and 11 of figure T1 show the Chalukya scripts from the seventh, tenth and eleventh centuries. The later two are traditionally referred as the Vengi script, after the capital of the Eastern Chalukya kingdom in modern day West Godavari District. Examples of this script were found all over the Telugu Nadu. Figures below give detailed samples.

File:Chalukya Rajaraja Narendra inscription.jpg

Figure S8: Eleventh century Chalukya Rajaraja Narendra inscription.

Figure S8 gives the script at the time when the great poet Nannaya was composing Maha Bharatam at the court of Rajaraja Narendra.

The period of the twelfth to fourteenth centuries was a glorious era in Telugu history. It was the time of the Kakatiya Empire that spread from Warangal in Telangana to control all of the Telugu land directly or indirectly. The Kakatiya emperors presided over a multi fold flowering of arts and literature. Row 12 of figure T1 shows the script they used. The detail below comes from the time when the greatest of Telugu writers, tikkana somayaji was composing Maha Bharatam.

File:Kakatiya Ganapati Deva inscription.jpg

Figure S9: Thirteenth century Kakatiya Ganapati Deva inscription.

After the demise of the Kakatiya Empire, Telugu was ably supported by the Reddi kingdoms in central coastal districts during the fourteenth and fifteenth Centuries. To them belongs the credit of nurturing the great Errana and the incomparable Srinatha. The scripts of that time are shown in rows 13 and 14 of figure T1. (Notice the Telugu idiom of figure S11.)

File:Inscription at time Errana.jpg

Figure S10: Fourteenth century inscription from the time of poet Errana.

File:Inscription at time Srinatha.jpg

Figure S11: Fourteenth century inscription from the time of poet Srinatha.

The end of the Kakatiya Empire also sowed the seeds for the rise of the finest Empire in the South Indian history at Vijayanagara. This empire over saw the development of all the four southern languages for several centuries. Much has been written about this period. The script used for Telugu and Kannada during this time is shown in the last row of figure T1. This is very similar to the modern day written script.

File:Inscription at time of Krishnadeva Raya.jpg

Figure S12: Inscription from the time of Emperor Krishnadeva Raya.

The figure below shows one of the first instances of Christian Missionary writings in Telugu. It was published by Rev. Benjamin Schultze in Halle/Magdeburg (modern Germany). About half a dozen Telugu works were published in Europe at that time. Tamil had Christian writing and Bible translations from an even earlier time.

File:Christian writings in Telugu (1747).jpg

Figure S13: Christian writings in Telugu (1747).

The only major change after this time is the regularization of the letters with the advent of modern printing.

File:Printed Telugu from the 1817 grammar by William Brown.jpg

Figure S14: Printed Telugu from the 1817 grammar by William Brown.

Over the years, several subtle changes took place in the Telugu character graphs and spelling patterns.

C.P. Brown, an English employee of the British East India Company and eminent scholar played a significant role in adapting Telugu to the printing press. He and some others introduced changes in the script to better reflect the pronunciation patterns.

In addition to the above examples of formal script, written form of Telugu included a continuous writing style called "golusu kattu" akin to English hand writing where each letter of a word is combined with the previous letter in one continuous stroke of the pen. This form, although very popular till about the middle of the 20th century, is not used any more.

Vowels

Telugu uses fourteen vowels, each of which has both a singular form and a diacritic form used with consonants to create syllables. It is important to note that this language does make a distinction between short and long vowels.

Vowel (singular form)	అ	ఆ	ఇ	ఈ	ఉ	ఊ	ఋ	ౠ	ఎ	ఏ	ఐ	ఒ	ఓ	ఔ
Vowel (diacritic form)		ా	ి	ీ	ు	ూ	ృ	ౄ	ె	ే	ై	ొ	ో	ౌ
Pronunciation (IPA)	[a]	[aː]	[i]	[iː]	[u]	[uː]	[ri/ru]	[riː/ruː]	[e]	[eː]	[aj]	[o]	[oː]	[aw]

The singular form is used when the vowel occurs at the beginning of a word or syllable, or is a complete syllable in itself (example: a, u, o). The diacritic form is added to consonants (represented by the dotted circle) to form a consonant-vowel syllable (example: ka, kru, mo). It should be noted that అ does not have a diacritic form, because this vowel is already inherent in all of the consonants. The other diacritic vowels are added to consonants to change their pronunciation to that of the vowel.

Examples:

ఖ + ఈ (ీ) → ఖీ	[kʰa] + [iː] → [kʰiː]
జ + ఉ (ు) → జు	[dʒa] + [u] → [dʒu]

There are also several other diacritics used in the Telugu script. ్ mutes the vowel of a consonant, so that only the consonant is pronounced. ం and ఁ nasalize the vowels or syllables to which they are attached. ః adds a voiceless breath after the vowel or syllable it is attached to.

Examples:

క + ్ → క్	[ka] + [Ø] → [k]
క + ఁ → కఁ	[ka] + [n] → [kan]
క + ం → కం	[ka] + [m] → [kam]
క + ః → కః	[ka] + [h] → [kah]

Telugu in Unicode

The Unicode range for Telugu is U+0C00 to U+0C7F.

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

A

B

C

D

E

F

C00

ఁ

ం

ః

అ

ఆ

ఇ

ఈ

ఉ

ఊ

ఋ

ఌ

ఎ

ఏ

C10

ఐ

ఒ

ఓ

ఔ

క

ఖ

గ

ఘ

ఙ

చ

ఛ

జ

ఝ

ఞ

ట

C20

ఠ

డ

ఢ

ణ

త

థ

ద

ధ

న

ప

ఫ

బ

భ

మ

య

C30

ర

ఱ

ల

ళ

వ

శ

ష

స

హ

ా

ి

C40

ీ

ు

ూ

ృ

ౄ

ె

ే

ై

ొ

ో

ౌ

్

C50

ౕ

ౖ

C60

ౠ

ౡ

౦

౧

౨

౩

౪

౫

౬

౭

౮

౯

C70

In contrast to a syllabic script such as katakana, where one Unicode code point represents the glyph for one syllable, Telugu combines multiple code points to generate the glyph for one syllable, using complex font rendering rules.

References

1. tirumala raamacaMdra (1916-1997). "mana lipi puTTu poorvOttaraalu"

2. paMcaagnula aadinaarayana Saastri (1890-1951). "aaMdhra lipi pariNaamaM"

External links

• Useful and authenticated information about Telugu
• Telugu Association Inc. Sydney Australia. Celebration of Telugu Culture in Sydney
• Omniglot - Telugu script
• PROEL - Telugu script compared with other Dravidian scripts
• Vignanam - Learn Something Today