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The Andhras in early texts

Early Sanskrit and Prakrit texts name the Andhras in the Aitareya Brahmana, Asoka's Rock Edict XIII and the Puranic king lists. This page also looks at the age of Hala's Prakrit verses. It explains what these sources can and cannot tell us about whether the Andhras spoke Telugu, and when Andhra first became a name for the Telugu language.

Sanskrit writers came to use Andhra as the name of the Telugu people and their language.1 The name itself is much older. It appears in a Vedic text, in an edict of Asoka and in the Puranic lists of kings.234 This page sets out, in time order, where these early texts name the Andhras. It also asks what the sources can tell us about whether those Andhras spoke Telugu.56

About the sources. None of the early texts quoted on this page says what language the Andhras spoke. Every link between these early Andhras and the Telugu people is made by a modern scholar, and the page names him. No passage naming the Andhras was found for this page in Panini or Patanjali, or in Kalidasa’s Raghuvamsha. The page gives what scholars say about those works instead. For the Satavahana kings, whom the Puranas call Andhras, see Satavahanas. For Asoka’s edicts, see Asoka.

The Aitareya Brahmana

The Aitareya Brahmana is a prose text of the Rigveda explaining the meaning and rituals of the Vedic sacrifice.7 Martin Haug translated it into English in 1863, and A. B. Keith in 1920.78

Its seventh book tells the story of Sunahsepa, a boy whom the sage Visvamitra adopted as his eldest son.98 Fifty of Visvamitra’s sons, those older than Madhuchhandas, refused to accept him.98 Visvamitra cursed them.9

In Haug’s translation, their descendants are “the most degraded classes of men”, such as the Andhras, Pundras, Sabaras, Pulindas and Mutibas.9 Keith’s translation says that these peoples “live in large numbers beyond the borders”.8 It adds that most of the Dasyus (peoples outside the Vedic community) are Visvamitra’s descendants.8

In a note Keith called these tribes “doubtless non-Aryan in the main”.8 In his introduction he called this the first reference to the Andhras, but “as outside the Aryan sphere of action”.2 Keith also thought the prose of the story was later than its verses.10 In his view, a misread verse may have helped to frame “the fiction of the origin of the Andhras” from Visvamitra’s sons.10

Scholars date the passage differently. Rapson, following Macdonell, noted that it is in the later part of the text, which might be as late as about 500 BCE.11 Vincent Smith, quoting D. R. Bhandarkar, called it a work “certainly composed prior to 500 B.C.”12

F. E. Pargiter (1922) noted that the accounts of the curse differ in detail.13 In them Visvamitra cursed the sons who rejected Sunahsepa to become “dog-eaters or mlecchas” (outcasts), such as Andhras, Pundras and Sabaras.13 He cited the Aitareya Brahmana and the Sankhayana Srauta Sutra for this.13 Pargiter thought the stories of “degraded” Visvamitras more probably meant something else. In his view some of Visvamitra’s descendants became priests to non-Aryan tribes and sank to their level.13

The text itself places these peoples only “beyond the borders”.8 R. G. Bhandarkar (1896) noted that later literature makes the Pulindas and Sabaras wild tribes of the Vindhya hills.14 He wrote that the Andhras, “who in these days are identified with the Telugu people”, lived about the mouth of the Godavari or perhaps farther north.14 E. J. Rapson thought their home was then, as later, the Telugu country between the Krishna and the Godavari.15

The grammarians

Panini’s grammar of Sanskrit names many peoples and countries. So do the notes on it by Katyayana and Patanjali.1416 R. G. Bhandarkar went through all three to see how much of the south each author knew.141617

According to Bhandarkar, the countries farthest south that Panini names are Kachchha, Avanti, Kosala, Karusa and Kalinga.1416 He took this to mean that in Panini’s time the Aryas did not live south of the Vindhyas.16 Katyayana adds the Pandyas, the Cholas and the country of Mahishmat.1617 Patanjali, whom Bhandarkar dated to 150 BCE, names Mahishmati, Vaidarbha, Kanchipuram (then Kanchipura) and Kerala.17

The Andhras are not in any of these lists.141617 K. Raghavacharyulu (1937) says that all three grammarians are silent about the Andhras and their country.18

Asoka’s Rock Edict XIII

The emperor Asoka named the Andhras in his Rock Edict XIII, in the 3rd century BCE. A copy of it is cut at Erragudi in Kurnool district.3 In D. C. Sircar’s translation of that copy, the Andhras and the Paulindas are among the peoples within the king’s own lands. They are said to follow his teaching of dhamma (moral law).3

E. Hultzsch (1925) translated the same words as “here in the king’s territory”.19 He wrote that “Andhra is the old name of the Telugu people on the eastern coast”.19 In his notes to the edict he called it “the old name of the Telugu country and people”.20 Scholars read the Andhras’ place in the empire in different ways, as the page on Asoka shows.319

The Puranic king lists

The Puranas are Sanskrit collections of legends and accounts of family descent. Several of them end with the kings of the Kali age, the Andhras among them.214 F. E. Pargiter edited these lists in 1913, with an English translation.4 The Puranas tell this history as a prophecy, in the future tense.21

In Pargiter’s translation, “the Andhra Simuka” and his fellow tribesmen attack the Kanva king Susarman.4 They destroy what is left of the power of the Sungas and take the kingdom.4 The list then names each king and the length of his reign. Hala, for example, “will be king 5 years”.4 It ends: “These 30 Andhra kings will enjoy the earth 460 years”.22

The Puranas do not agree on the total. Pargiter found 460 years in the Matsya, 411 in the Vayu, and 456 in the Brahmanda, Vishnu and Bhagavata.23 After the dynasty the lists name “7 Andhras” of the line of their servants.22 They also name the “Sriparvatiya Andhras”, who last 52 years.22

Pargiter thought these accounts began as Prakrit verses, composed in or near Magadha and later turned into Sanskrit.21 He saw signs that the Andhra part was first put together in the reign of Yajna Sri Satakarni, late in the 2nd century CE.2124 Rapson noted that the dynasty was also called Andhrabhritya or Satavahana. He took Satavahana to be the name of the royal clan.11 For how the lists compare with the inscriptions and coins, see Satavahanas.11

Classical Sanskrit poetry

Kalidasa’s Raghuvamsha describes the conquests of King Raghu.25 According to Raghavacharyulu, Raghu conquers the Vangas, Utkalas and Kalingas and goes south to the Kaveri. Yet the poem never names the Andhras or their king.25 Raghavacharyulu found this silence hard to explain, whether Kalidasa lived in the 1st century BCE or the 4th century CE.25

Hala’s verses and the Prakrit of the Satavahana age

The Gatha Saptashati (Seven Hundred Verses) is a collection of short Prakrit poems, mostly about love.26 R. G. Bhandarkar described it as written in the old Maharashtri dialect.26 Its third verse names the compiler as Hala, who is usually called Salivahana.26

The Puranic lists include a king Hala among the Andhras.4 Bhandarkar thought this Hala probably wrote the work, or had it dedicated to him.26 He concluded that Prakrit, above all Maharashtri, was probably first used for literature under these kings.26 Vincent Smith also described the verses as written in “the ancient dialect of Maharashtra”.27

Albrecht Weber studied and edited the verses in German, in 1870 and 1881. In 1870 he noted that they often name the Vindhya hills and the Godavari.28 From this he placed them in the north-eastern Deccan, between the Vindhyas and the Godavari, “nach Telinga” (in the Telugu country).28 By 1881 he had found more verses that name the Narmada and the Tapti.29 He then placed them in the north-western Deccan, and noted that he had earlier written “north-eastern”.29

Weber took the compiler to be the Puranic Hala, a king of the Satavahana family.30 He noted that the lists put Hala 11th or 17th of the 30 kings, with a reign of five years or only one.31 He warned that such precise dates were very doubtful.31

One old commentary on the verses, which Weber called y, says that the word addāa (mirror) in verse 204 is a “tilaṃgā deśī” word.3233 Weber took this to mean a Telugu word.32 He called the note factually wrong, though of real interest. He traced addāa to the Sanskrit ādarśa (mirror).32

K. R. Subramanian (1932) only reported, without examples, that colloquial Telugu forms were said to occur in the verses.34 He also wrote that we do not know what Telugu was like in the early centuries CE.35 None of the authors cited here identifies a word in the Saptashati that they accept as Telugu. The claim is made in popular writing, but these sources do not confirm it.3234

Rapson found a different kind of evidence in the Andhra inscriptions and coins. He thought two dialects were used in the Krishna district.36 One was the common Prakrit of the inscriptions. The other was a local Prakrit, “perhaps containing Dravidian elements”.36 He saw traces of it in names such as Haku for Sakti and Hala for Sata.3637 In a note he called it “the Dravidian Prakrit of the Andhras”, in which h takes the place of the Sanskrit s.37 For the first records written in Telugu, see Language & literature.

When Andhra came to mean the Telugu language

Robert Caldwell (1875) wrote that Sanskrit writers call Telugu “Andhra”, the language of the Andhras.1 In his view the Telugu people seem to have been two nations from the earliest times, the Andhras and the Kalingas.1

G. A. Grierson (1906) names the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang (Hiuen Tsang), in the 7th century CE, as the first writer to mention Andhra as a language.38 Xuanzang said that the Andhras had a language of their own. It was written in an alphabet close to those of northern India.381

The writer Kumarila Bhatta, probably of the 7th century, called the Dravidian languages Andhra-Dravida-bhasha.39 Grierson explained the term as “the language of the Andhras (i.e., Telugu) and Dravidas (i.e., Tamilians)”.39 He added that it is “by no means certain” that the term refers to two separate dialects.40

Neither scholar could explain the name itself. Caldwell thought Andhra, like most Vedic proper names, “incapable of explanation”.41 Grierson said that nothing was known of its origin.6 He took Andhra to be the old Aryan name for the Telugu country.6 He called Telugu “the only descendant of the Andhra-dialect of Old Dravidian”.42

Where the sources disagree

  • Were the Andhras of the Aitareya Brahmana Telugu people? Rapson placed their home then, as later, in the Telugu country between the Krishna and the Godavari.15 Smith called them a Dravidian people, now represented by the speakers of Telugu.12 Bhandarkar wrote only that the Andhras are identified with the Telugu people “in these days”.14 Keith read the text as treating them simply as peoples beyond the borders, outside the Aryan sphere.28
  • Were Asoka’s Andhras Telugu people? Hultzsch identified them with the Telugu people of the east coast.19 Sewell, reading the same edict, placed them near the Vindhya hills.43 Subramanian argued that if they were not the ancestors of the Telugus, they would have no known home.34
  • Did the Andhras speak Telugu or Prakrit? Smith reports the view of P. T. Srinivas Iyengar (1913) that the Andhras spoke Prakrit, not Telugu, and that their rule spread from west to east.5 Subramanian reports his view that Andhra became the name of the Telugu land only after the 3rd century CE.34 Sircar argued that the Andhra people first lived in the northern Deccan.44 Rapson saw a local Prakrit with possible Dravidian elements in the Krishna district.36
  • Who is named beside the Andhras in Rock Edict XIII? Sircar’s translation pairs the Andhras with the Paulindas.3 G. Bühler had read the name as Pulindas, who also stand beside the Andhras in the Aitareya Brahmana.20 Hultzsch read Paladas, and thought the other copies of the edict made Bühler’s reading very unlikely.20
  • Where were Hala’s verses made? In 1870 Weber placed them in the north-eastern Deccan, in the Telugu country.28 In 1881 he moved them to the north-western Deccan.29

Footnotes

  1. Caldwell, Comparative Grammar (1875), Introduction, p. 30 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  2. Arthur Berriedale Keith (tr.), Rigveda Brahmanas: the Aitareya and Kausitaki Brahmanas of the Rigveda (1920), p. 45 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  3. D. C. Sircar, “Erragudi Edicts of Asoka”, Epigraphia Indica XXXII (1959), p. 24, translation of Rock Edict XIII (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  4. Pargiter, Dynasties of the Kali Age (1913), p. 71, translation (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  5. Smith, Early History of India (1924), p. 218 and nn. 1–2 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  6. Grierson, Linguistic Survey of India, Vol. IV (1906), p. 576, “Telugu” (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  7. Martin Haug (tr.), The Aitareya Brahmanam of the Rigveda, Vol. II: Translation, with notes (1863), title page (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  8. Keith, Rigveda Brahmanas (1920), p. 307, Aitareya Brahmana VII.18 and notes (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  9. Haug, Aitareya Brahmanam, Vol. II (1863), pp. 469–470, Book VII, section 18 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  10. Keith, Rigveda Brahmanas (1920), p. 65 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  11. E. J. Rapson, Catalogue of the Coins of the Andhra Dynasty, the Western Ksatrapas, the Traikutaka Dynasty, and the “Bodhi” Dynasty (1908), p. xv and n. 1 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  12. Vincent A. Smith, The Early History of India, 4th ed. (1924), p. 217 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  13. F. E. Pargiter, Ancient Indian Historical Tradition (1922), p. 235 and notes (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  14. R. G. Bhandarkar, “Early History of the Dekkan”, in Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. I, Part II (1896), p. 138 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  15. Rapson, Catalogue of the Coins of the Andhra Dynasty (1908), p. xvi and n. 2 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  16. Bhandarkar, “Early History of the Dekkan” (1896), p. 139 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  17. Bhandarkar, “Early History of the Dekkan” (1896), p. 140 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  18. K. Raghavacharyulu, “The Term Andhra and Early References Thereto”, Journal of the Andhra Historical Research Society X (1937), p. 110 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

  19. E. Hultzsch, Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, Vol. I: Inscriptions of Asoka (1925), p. xxxix (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  20. Hultzsch, Inscriptions of Asoka (1925), p. 48, Rock Edict XIII (Kalsi), translation and notes 13–14 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  21. Pargiter, Dynasties of the Kali Age (1913), p. xxvii (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  22. Pargiter, Dynasties of the Kali Age (1913), p. 72, translation (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  23. Pargiter, Dynasties of the Kali Age (1913), p. 37 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  24. F. E. Pargiter, The Purana Text of the Dynasties of the Kali Age (1913), p. xiii, note (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  25. Raghavacharyulu, “The Term Andhra and Early References Thereto” (1937), p. 112 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  26. Bhandarkar, “Early History of the Dekkan” (1896), p. 171 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  27. Smith, Early History of India (1924), p. 220 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  28. Albrecht Weber, Ueber das Saptaçatakam des Hâla (1870), pp. 13–14 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). In German; summarised. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  29. Weber, Das Saptaçatakam des Hâla (1881), p. xvi and n. 5 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). In German; summarised. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  30. Albrecht Weber, Das Saptaçatakam des Hâla (1881), p. xiv (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). In German; summarised. ↩

  31. Weber, Das Saptaçatakam des Hâla (1881), p. xv (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). In German; summarised. ↩ ↩2

  32. Weber, Das Saptaçatakam des Hâla (1881), text p. 15, notes on verse 204 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). In German; summarised. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  33. Weber, Das Saptaçatakam des Hâla (1881), pp. xxxvii–xxxviii (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). In German; summarised. ↩

  34. Subramanian, Buddhist Remains in Andhra (1932), p. 9 and notes (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  35. K. R. Subramanian, Buddhist Remains in Andhra and the History of Andhra between 225 and 610 A.D. (1932), p. 8 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

  36. Rapson, Catalogue of the Coins of the Andhra Dynasty (1908), p. xci (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  37. Rapson, Catalogue of the Coins of the Andhra Dynasty (1908), p. xx, n. 3 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  38. Grierson, Linguistic Survey of India, Vol. IV (1906), p. 580 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  39. G. A. Grierson (ed.), Linguistic Survey of India, Vol. IV: Munda and Dravidian Languages (1906), p. 277 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  40. Grierson, Linguistic Survey of India, Vol. IV (1906), p. 284 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  41. Robert Caldwell, A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian Family of Languages, 2nd ed. (1875), Introduction, p. 13 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  42. Grierson, Linguistic Survey of India, Vol. IV (1906), p. 285 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  43. Robert Sewell, The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 324 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  44. D. C. Sircar, “Two Inscriptions from Guntur District”, Epigraphia Indica XXXII (1959), p. 86 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

References

Sources (16)
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  2. Arthur Berriedale Keith (tr.), Rigveda Brahmanas: the Aitareya and Kausitaki Brahmanas of the Rigveda (Harvard Oriental Series, Vol. 25) (opens in a new tab), Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1920, pp. 45, 65, 307. [Public domain]
  3. F. E. Pargiter (ed.), The Purana Text of the Dynasties of the Kali Age, with Introduction and Notes (opens in a new tab), Oxford University Press (Humphrey Milford), London, 1913, xiii, xxvii, 37, 71–72. [Public domain]
  4. F. E. Pargiter, Ancient Indian Historical Tradition (opens in a new tab), Oxford University Press (Humphrey Milford), London, 1922, pp. 235. [Public domain]
  5. J. F. Fleet, R. G. Bhandarkar and others (Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency), Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. I, Part II: History of the Konkan, Dakhan and Southern Maratha Country (opens in a new tab), Government Central Press, Bombay, 1896, pp. 138–140, 171. R. G. Bhandarkar, Early History of the Dekkan. [Public domain]
  6. K. Raghavacharyulu, The Term Andhra and Early References Thereto, Journal of the Andhra Historical Research Society, Vol. X, pts. 1-4 (opens in a new tab), Andhra Historical Research Society, Rajahmundry, 1937, pp. 110, 112. Cite-only; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]
  7. D. C. Sircar and B. Ch. Chhabra (eds.), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XXXII (1957–58) (opens in a new tab), Archaeological Survey of India, 1959, pp. 24. D. C. Sircar, 'Erragudi Edicts of Asoka' (No. 1). Paraphrased. [Public domain in India]
  8. E. Hultzsch, Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, Vol. I: Inscriptions of Asoka (New Edition) (opens in a new tab), Clarendon Press, Oxford, for the Government of India, 1925, xxxix, 48. [Public domain]
  9. Robert Sewell (ed. S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar), The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (Collected till 1923) and Outlines of Political History (opens in a new tab), University of Madras, 1932, pp. 324. [Public domain in India]
  10. E. J. Rapson, Catalogue of the Coins of the Andhra Dynasty, the Western Ksatrapas, the Traikutaka Dynasty, and the 'Bodhi' Dynasty (Catalogue of the Indian Coins in the British Museum) (opens in a new tab), British Museum, London, 1908, xv–xvi, xx, xci. [Public domain]
  11. Vincent A. Smith (rev. S. M. Edwardes), The Early History of India from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, 4th ed. (opens in a new tab), Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1924, pp. 217–218, 220. [Public domain]
  12. Albrecht Weber, Ueber das Saptaçatakam des Hâla: ein Beitrag zur Kenntniss des Prâkrit (Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, Vol. V, No. 3) (opens in a new tab), Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft (F. A. Brockhaus), Leipzig, 1870, pp. 13. [Public domain]
  13. Albrecht Weber (ed.), Das Saptaçatakam des Hâla (Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, Vol. VII, No. 4) (opens in a new tab), Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft (F. A. Brockhaus), Leipzig, 1881, xiv–xvi, xxxvii; text p. 15. [Public domain]
  14. K. R. Subramanian, Buddhist Remains in Andhra and the History of Andhra between 225 and 610 A.D. (opens in a new tab), Madras (with a foreword by G. Jouveau-Dubreuil), 1932, pp. 8–9. Cite-only; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]
  15. Robert Caldwell, A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian Family of Languages, 2nd ed. (opens in a new tab), Trübner and Co., London, 1875, pp. 13, 30. [Public domain]
  16. G. A. Grierson (ed.), Linguistic Survey of India, Vol. IV: Munda and Dravidian Languages (opens in a new tab), Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta, 1906, pp. 277, 284–285, 576, 580. [Public domain]

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