Kannada – First Administrative Language of South

Kannada is the first Administrative language of south India and third after Prakrit & sanskrit in India (Since Greek and Aramic are used in territories outside India ). This is arrived on the basis of full-length Inscriptions or Grants in the form of Copper plates and others.

First full length Inscription in

Prakrit	230BC	Ashoka Edicts	Emperor Ashoka - Mauryan	both North and South India
Greek , Aramic	230BC	Asoka Edicts.	Emperor Ashoka - Mauryan	Afghanistan and Middle East
Sanskrit	1 Century AD	Mathura Inscription	Sadosa – Indo Scythian	North India
	375 - 425AD	Nagarjunakonda Inscription	Ehuvula Santamula – Ikshvaku	Andhra Pradesh
Kannada	450AD	Halmidi inscription	Kakusthavarman – Kadambas	Karnataka
Telugu	575 AD	Erragudipadu , Cuddapah district	Erikal, Muthuraju - Renati Chodas	Andhra Pradesh
Tamil	610AD	cave-temples at Tiruchi and Pallavaram	Mahendravarman I - Pallava	Tamil Nadu
Malayalam	830AD	Vazapalli copper plate Inscription	RajaShekara - Chera	Kerala
Marathi	974AD	Marmuri Copper Plate	Irivabedanga Satyasraya - Chalukya	Maharastra
Hindi	1022AD	Shyopur	Unknown	Madyapradesh
Kashmiri	11th Century AD	Grants	Udai Singh - Chambas	Jammu & Kashmir
Tulu	1200 AD	Alupe Inscription	Kulashekara Alupendra - Alupa	Karnataka
Arabic	12th centuryAD	Grants		North India
Persian	14th century AD	Grants		North India
Oriya	1400AD	Puri Plats	Narashima IV, Eastern Gangas	Orissa
Gujarati	15th century AD	Kathiawar		Gujarat
Bengali	15th century AD	Copper Plates	king Govindamaikya	Tripura
Portuguese	16th Century AD			Goa
Assamese	1630AD	Bhomoraguri Inscription	Pratap Sinha , Ahom King	Assam
Dutch	17th Century AD	Chengulpet		Tamil Nadu
French, English	17th century AD			All over India
Urdu	18th century AD			North India

Sanskrit made its presence felt during Satavahanas ,by the time of Gupta's(4th century AD) it has almost completely replaced Prakrit in North India, After arrival of Guptas to the south it rapidly replaced the prakrit in south also. Sanskrit was used in inscriptions from 4^th century AD in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh and 6^th century in rest of south India. Trend of using Full Length inscriptions in Regional Languages along with Sanskrit started from 450AD in Kannada, 575AD in Telugu , 610AD in Tamil and 850AD in Malayalam. Rest of the languages from table.

Kannada Administative Language

Kannada words have been found right from earliest writings of Ashoka. We will consider it a court language when grants are issued or inscriptions are made in that language. Kannada seems to be the official language of Satavahans as lord of kuntala, But Chutu line of Satakarnis used titles in Kannada, which show that it was a offcial language of Chutu's . The Rastrakuta's of Mana used kannada as the official language. Kalidasa who visited their court kuntala seems to be slighted by this and him passing derogatory comments on kannada shows it. But it is Kadmbas who wrote inscriptions and gave official grants in kannada. Chalukyas followed them in giving grants all over their country in Kannada. Pallava's who never bothered to issue grants in Tamil till then followed suit. Rastrakuta's took kannada language to an all India Status. Rastrakuta inscriptions and grants are found all over the India. Susequent Karnata rulers like Mallas( North India & Nepal), Palas& Sena( Bengal) , Ganga (Orissa) , Solanki (Gujarat), Chalukya Cholas ( Tamil nadu) though did not use kannada as the official language in other parts of the country, but kept their kannada titles.
If you see the table it is kannada which breaks the trend. The first use of regional lanuage in their respective domain comes after invasion and occupation by Chalukyas , Rastrakuta and their lineage of kings.