DIFFERENCE BETWEEN KANNADA AND TELUGU

[RSR]

I do not know either Kannada or Telugu. I am interested in the historical evolution of these two languages and their scripts. As a student of Carnatic classical music from Purandaradasa (1500 AD ), I find that knowledge of these two languages as well as Sanskrit are indispensable to understand the kritis of famous composers. Why is it that most composers, used Telugu rather than Kannada? How is it that Krushnadeava Raya , the greatest emperor of Vijayanagar (1500 AD ), wrote in Telugu? and had many Telugu scholars in his court? If one learns Telugu, will it be easy to learn the other and vice versa? What was the language used in Sathavahana Empire ( around 200 BC to 200 AD---(ie) 400 years? an empire which extended from western coast of Deccan to its Eastern coast? ( this will comprise present day, Karnataka, andhra , Telengana and Orissa). Is Kannada closer to Marathi ?

[Sachi_R]

Sir, I can speak about Kannada.
Kannada is a language spoken in the peninsular plateau region for 2000+ years. It is heavily influenced by Samskrita. It has its own script and grammar. For someone who understands Samskrita, Kannada is very easy to learn. It has the same exactitude of pronunciation.

Old Kannada and old Tamil have many common non-Samskrita words, too.

There are versions of Kannada influenced by Marathi and even Urdu in some regions. The Kannada spoken from Mangalore to Mysore is the purest and most Kannada literature is in that version.

Kannada works written 500 years before Purandaradasa are available. Stone inscriptions in Kannada are a great storehouse for tracing Indian history for epigraphists. Many source books on Carnatic music and Bharatanatyam were written by people from this region.

Govinda Dikshita, an ancestor of Venkatamakhin and Maha Periyavaa, was from Mysore region and migrated to Tanjore region.

I follow Tamil much better than Telugu. Telugu script seems to have been adapted from Kannada during the times of Vijayanagara empire. But the languages are quite different!

[rajeshnat]

Sachi,
Musically Sanskrit has slokhams . Tamil has viruththams . Kannada has ugabhoogas . Through forum i came to know that in telugu the equivalent of slokhams/viruththams/ugabhoogas in telugu is Padyams which is hardly sung. I am assuming there is not much poetry and prose in telugu when compared to other three languages .

I am making a guess apart from big TIrupati Tirumala temple , the temple history is not very high in Andhra / Telengana ,May be starting with NT RamaRao they took over and reset telugu literature. Even when we all go to our favourite tirumala temple we only hear sri venkata sreenivasa with the tabla beats like aruna sairam a bang with 15 chorus i lose all bhakthi with my favourite God. I am assuming in 16th to 19th century telugu richness was bit sabotaged by many rulers of islamic origin and also got cannibalized with tamil and kannada literature in its two sides.

But God has given T,SS and a team of great T sishyas with such nice krithis in Telugu.

[rshankar]

I am making a guess apart from big TIrupati Tirumala temple , the temple history is not very high in Andhra.

Are you kidding??

Off the top of my head several other temples in the AP/Telegana region come to mind: 1) temple at Kalahasti - the vAyu sthalam - one of the panca bhUta kshEtras - gnyAnaprasUnAmbika samEta Sri kALahastISvara temple, made famous by the legend of kaNNapar. 2) Srisailam. 3) Bhadrachalam made famous by bhadrAcala rAmadasa. 4) mallikArjuna svAmi temple. 5) the temple at ahObilam... I am sure there are many, many more.

[rajeshnat]

ravi yes but they are far too few compared to tn kerala etc. Added to your list There is one big simhachalam temple near vizag too which i think draws big crowd as it is divyadesam .Do we have any big religious places of more contemporary gurus like kanchi srirangam sringeri guruvayoor and kaladi which has propagated as much of language and hindu religion for andhra and telengana . I am not aware.i will stand corrected if some one educates me

[RSR]

@Sachi_R
Respected Sir,
I too like Kannada script and words, especially as in Purandaradasa songs. and the region from Mysore , through Mandya, Arsikere, Shimoga , and through the ghats to Mangalore and Uduppi is likely to have been the original vanavasi of kadamba dynasty. I have read that there are some places near Shimoga where 'sanskrit' is the spoken language !
My surmise is that a large population of Brahmin scholars migrated from Telengana and even northern coastal Andhra around 1300 AD. to Tanjore area seeking protection . from alien rulers and culture. To the best of my knowledge, a good percentage of Brahmins in Tamilnad were of Telugu origin.
In the Sathavahana Dynasty, ( it was also known as Andhra dynasty) ( ref: Nilakanta Sastry,History of South India), (200 BC-200 AD), there must have been a common language. which later split into two varieties , one in Western part and the other in Eastern part.
Subramanya Barathy sings' sundharath thelunginil paattisaitthu'.
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Krushnadeva Raya's epic in Telugu.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amuktamalyada
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"Ashtadiggajas, Allasani Peddana, Dhurjati, Nandi Thimmana, Madayyagari Mallana and Ayyalaraju Ramabhadrudu are from the Rayalaseema. Tenali Ramakrishna hailed from the Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh. Ramarajabhushanudu was another Ashtadiggaja. "
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It appears that both Karnataka and Coastal Andhra were under Magadha rule and Jainism and Buddhism were prevalent. Amaravathi had a famous Buddhist monastery. The period 200 AD to 600 AD is rather confusing. Even in Tamil country, it was dubbed as Dark age ,may be because of kalabrar rule over throwing the earlier Sangam period kings of Chola, Pandya kings. and confiscating all the land grants by those kings to Brahmins. ( Chinnamanur copper plate).
My question is purely related to appreciation of Carnatic music. Even upto 1900, all classical music was in Telugu. (Ettayapuram zamin). How do we explain that? May be due to Nayak rule , followed by Mahratta rule in Tanjore.

Perhaps, a compulsory basic course upto 8th standard in basics of Sanskrit, Kannada, and Telugu may help in better appreciation among the new generation.