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 4th century AD in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh and 6th 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.

2 comments:

  1. This is certainly an awesome piece of information, i am proud to be a kannadiga...

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  2. Kannada appears to predate Tamil, not withstanding the antiquity claims of Tamil. This is reasonable because Kannada has a full alphabet equivalent to Devanagari (with a few extra long vovels and Tamil rr, and zha sounds) and would not get confused with derivations of meaning from an insufficient alphabet. Tamil almost certainly made a mistake in confusing Sangam with poets rather than Sangraha for poetic collection, for example.

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