Studies have revealed that as many as 2,500 Pali-Prakrit words entered Telugu, mostly through the tadbhava route, during this phase and got so thoroughly assimilated into the language that it is often difficult to distinguish them from the rest of the Telugu vocabulary. Here is the list of a representative dozen such words (Davids & Stede, 1952).
1. aggi (అగ్గి) {Pali, Pkt. aggi {Middle Indo-Aryan} Vedic Skt. agni – ‘fire, flames, sparks; conflagration’
2. allamu (అల్లము) {Pkt. alla, adda {MIA} Skt. ārdraka – ‘fresh ginger’
3. āna (ఆన) {Pkt. ānā {MIA} Skt. ājnā – ‘order, command’
4. bandi (బండి) cart {Pkt. bhandī, bhand̤a {MIA} Epic Skt. bhānd̤a – ‘goods, wares’
5. bhayamu (భయము) {Pali, Pkt. bhaya {MIA} Vedic Skt. bhaya – ‘fear, fright, dread’
6. bōnamu (బోనము) ‘food, boiled rice’ {Pkt. bhōna {MIA} Skt. bhōjana – ‘meal’
7. bōya, (బోయ) ‘palanquin bearer, fisherman’ {Pkt. bhōi {MIA} Skt. bhōgin – ‘headman of a village’
8. gadda (గద్ద) {Pali, Pkt. gaddha {MIA} Vedic Skt. grdha – ‘vulture’
9. kāki (కాకి) {Pali, Pkt. kāka {MIA} Skt. kāka – ‘the crow’
10. katté (కట్టె) stick {Pkt. kattha {MIA} Skt. kāstha – ‘a piece of wood, esp. a stick used as fuel, firewood’
11. niccena (నిచ్చెన) ladder {Pkt. nisseni {MIA} Skt. nis-śrenī – ‘ladder’
12. setti (సెట్టి) {Pali, Pkt. setthi ‘merchant’ {MIA} Skt. śresthin – ‘person of authority, head of a guild’
It should be noted here that these and other tadbhavas did not emanate from Sanskrit and then reach Telugu via Pali-Prakrits. Contrary to popular belief Pali-Prakrits did not emerge from Sanskrit. They came from Middle Indo-Aryan (MIA) which replaced Old Indo-Aryan by the time of the Buddha who preached in MIA (eastern dialect). But for some reason the Buddhist texts of the period are available only in the Pali variety of MIA. MIA heavily influenced the Sanskrit of the epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Several later Prakrit forms of MIA, which came into being around the beginning of Common Era, were used in Sanskrit dramas, especially for the purpose of the dialogues by characters of lower social rank and, yes, women.
It can thus be seen that both the Sanskrit of the epics and Pali-Prakrits proceeded from MIA separately, had independent existence and often interacted meaningfully, as in Sanskrit dramas. With the exception of Pali, and that too because of its status as the Buddhist language of liturgy, all the Prakrits — Sauraseni, Maharastri, Magadhi, Ardhamagadhi, Paisaci and Gandhari — fell by the way side, after holding sway for a whole millennium, and gave rise to the early forms of the New Indo-Aryan (NIA) during the first 1000 years of CE. MIA first took the form of Apabhramsa and later that of Avahattha. It is from Apabhramsa and Avahattha that the modern NIA languages — Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali, Oriya, Assamese, Sinhala, etc — have evolved. Since Telugu did not emerge from NIA the Pali-Prakrit words in it are loanwords and can be identified as such if an effort is made. There is clearly no organic link between Pali-Prakrits and Telugu, as in the case of the NIA languages*. When Telugu borrowed Pali-Prakrit words it adopted their Pali-Prakrit form and meaning rather than their Sanskrit form and meaning (see setti above, for example). The Pali-Prakrit loanwords in Telugu are also phonologically closer to Pali-Prakrit words rather than their Sanskrit equivalents.
[*For more details see Michael Witzel, “Languages and Scripts,” Encyclopedia of India, vol. 1, ed. Stanley Wolpert (Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2006) 50-56.]
Phase-III: Sanskrit Loanwords
Sanskrit lent not only a large number of words, mostly in tatsama form, but some rules of grammar as well to Telugu. When it came to composing poetry, circa 11th century AD, Sanskrit was seen as a default donor language since quite some Sanskrit words had already entered the Telugu lexicon by then on account of the telling and retelling of the stories of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana for centuries by priests and pundits at temples and courts. Sanskrit words that way had some currency among the Telugu people, and scholars made it a point to learn the language anyway. Telugu poets were thus well prepared to draw on the Sanskrit lexicon, although not indiscriminately. There were certainly some clearly defined rules governing these borrowings. But the exact meaning of Sanskrit words was not always carried forward into Telugu as evidenced by the following: Skt. avasara (chance, opportunity) – Tel. avasaram (need); Skt. bahusha: (abundantly) – Tel. bahusha: (possibly); Skt. nīrasa (insipid) – Tel. nīrasam (weak); Skt. prayāsa (effort) – Tel. prayāsa (hardship); Skt. samsara (world) – Tel. samsāram (family life); Skt. viparīta (contrary) – Tel. viparītam (extreme); and Skt. vyavasāya (business) – Tel. vyavasāyam (agriculture).
The first sustained literary works to be written in Telugu were translations of the Sanskrit epics the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. Nannaya (11th century AD), when he was asked to translate the Sanskrit Mahabharata into Telugu by his patron, King Rajaraja Narendra, for the benefit of his subjects, surveyed the Telugu vocabulary obtaining at that time. He discovered that it chiefly consisted of the original Telugu words emanating from proto-Dravidian, Pali-Prakrit loans and some Sanskrit words. He felt that the Telugu vocabulary of all kinds available to him was woefully insufficient to translate a great epic like the Mahabharata. He however found an easy way out in borrowing countless Sanskrit words, then subjecting them to inflectional modifications and finally setting them to Telugu grammar. His stanzas thus tend to be highly Sanskritized in terms of vocabulary, sometimes to the extent of 90% or more. Here, for example, is a stanza from Nannaya’s translation of the Mahabharata.
అతత పక్షమారుతరయప్రవికంపిత ఘూర్ణితాచల
వ్రాతమహారణవుండు బలవన్నిజదేహసముజ్జ్వల ప్రభా
ధూతపతంగతేజుఁ డుదితుండయి తార్క్ష్యుఁడు తల్లికిన్ మనః
ప్రీతి యొనర్చుచున్ నెగసె భీమజవంబున నభ్రవీథికిన్
atata pakshamārutarayapravikampita ghūrnitāchala
vrātamahārnavundu balavannijadéhasamujjvala prabhā
dhūtapatangatéjun duditundayi tārkshundu tallikin manah
prīti yonarchuchun negase bhīmajavambuna nabhravīthikin. (Nannaya 62)
The above stanza, which describes the flight of Garuda, has just four Telugu words: ayi, talli, onarchu, egase. All the other words are Sanskrit loans set to Telugu grammar.
Similarly, the Sanskrit Ramayana was first translated into Telugu c. ~1300 CE by Gona Buddha Reddy, a vassal of the Kakatiya emperor Pratapa Rudra-I under the title Ranganatha Ramayanamu. Following the translation of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, translation of various Sanskrit puranas and treatises continued for about 300 years. Even the Telangana poet Palkuriki Somanatha (12th century CE) who wrote original Telugu works, Basavapurana, Panditaradhya Charitra, etc., and who is often regarded as the first Telugu poet since Nannaya was primarily a translator, too made a liberal use of Sanskrit words in his compositions. All this literary activity facilitated further influx of Sanskrit loanwords into Telugu.
As pointed out above, Nannaya and other poets, who needed to portray deep feelings and emotions, express subtle shades of meaning and longingly describe various scenes and sights in order to tell their stories artistically and convincingly, had to borrow countless Sanskrit words. They also often borrowed Sanskrit words even when Telugu equivalents were readily available because the rules of prosody required phonological variety. Here, for example, are a dozen Sanskrit words which are closely related to the single emotion of love, and which one often comes across in Telugu poetry.
1. abhisārika (అభిసారిక) (Skt. अभिसारिका abhisārika) – woman who goes to meet her lover
2. ālinganamu (ఆలింగనము) (Skt. आलिङ्गन ālingana) – embrace
3. anurakti (అనురక్తి) (Skt. अनुरक्ति anurakti) – devotion, affection, love
4. chumbanamu (చుంబనము) (Skt. चुम्बन cumbana) – kiss, kissing
5. kāmamu (కామము) (Skt. काम kāma) – love, lust, desire
6. mōhamu (మోహము) (Skt. मोह mōha) – infatuation, distraction, amazement
7. pranayini (ప్రణయిని) (Skt. प्रणयिनी pranayini) – beloved, female devotee, wife
8. préyasi (ప్రేయసి) (Skt. प्रेयस् préyas) – dearest friend, lover, mistress
9. rati (రతి)(Skt. रति rati) – pleasure, love, amorous enjoyment
10. sāntvanamu (సాంత్వనము) (Skt. सान्त्वना sāntvana) – appeasing, conciliation, soothing
11. srungāramu (శృంగారము) (Skt. शृङ्गार shringāra) – pretty, sexual passion, desire or enjoyment
12. viyōgamu (వియోగము) (Skt. वियोग viyōga) – separation
It is not just in poetry, Sanskrit words are to be found in their thousands in such diverse domains as humanities, journalism, science and technology as well. Sanskrit was the lingua franca of India, like Latin in Europe, in spite of the popularity of Pali-Prakrits during the Buddhist/Jain phases of history, and it continued to be so until the Delhi Sultanate was established in 1206 and Persian replaced it for cross country communication purposes. After Indian Independence however Sanskrit bounced back into prominence, albeit indirectly, by supplying practically the whole of scientific/technical terminology. Here are a few Sanskrit words/phrases related to the concept of ‘sight’ which form part of Telugu terminology in various sciences: antardrushti (అంతర్దృష్టి, insight), avalōkanamu (అవలోకనము, understanding, viewing), drishtikōnamu (దృష్టికోణము, perspective), hrasva drishti (హ్రస్వదృష్టి, myopia), sūkshmadarshini (సూక్ష్మదర్శిని, microscope), sulōchanālu (సులోచనాలు, spectacles), vānanirīkshani (వాననిరీక్షణి, telescope) and vihanga vīkshanamu (విహంగ వీక్షణము, bird’s eye view). Sanskrit also frequently contributed the Indian equivalents of English terms such as adaptive coinages (ex. plagiarism – granta chauryam (గ్రంథచౌర్యం), breakfast – alpāhāram (అల్పాహారం), innovation – navakalpana (నవకల్పన)) and semantic reinterpretations (radio – akāshavāni (ఆకాశవాణి), television – dūradarshan (దూరదర్శన్), Platonic love – amalina shrungāram (అమలిన శృంగారం)).