World Telugu Conference - but Telangana's history doesn't track back to Telugu
- Hyderabad is all geared up to host the World Telugu Conference (WTC) being organised by the Telangana government from Friday, December 15
- It will be inaugurated by Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu at Lal Bahadur Stadium
- The conference will host about 8,000 delegates, including over 450 NRIs and delegates of non-Indian origin, from over 40 countries
FollowAfter American President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump's visit, Hyderabad is all geared up to host the World Telugu Conference (WTC) being organised by the Telangana government from Friday, December 15. It will be inaugurated by Vice-President MÂ Venkaiah Naidu at Lal Bahadur Stadium.
The conference will host about 8,000 delegates, including over 450 NRIs and delegates of non-Indian origin, from over 40 countries. The walls in the city have been painted by artists that showcase Telangana's rich culture to the entire world.Â
Over 900 Telugu poets would participate in a Kavi Sammelan during the conference. Apart from poetry recitals, there would be musical concerts and some big names from the film industry are likely to participate, reported News 18.
It will be the celebration of one of the oldest languages in India. It is said that spoken Telugu is over 2,000 years old. However, the written word came several centuries later.
Other developing languages had tremendous influence on the written Telugu language.
The classic example of this is the translation of the Mahabharata into Telugu by poet-author Nannayya in the 11th century. It was the time when as many as 24 alphabets were added to Telugu script. "Nannayya translated the epic Mahabharata from Sanskrit to Telugu. To accommodate Sanskrit words, Nannayya had added 24 alphabets. At that time there were only 36 alphabets in Telugu. Nannayya had Telugu-ised some of the Sanskrit words to make them appear Telugu. The primary purpose was to accommodate the Sanskrit sounds into Telugu," said linguist and oriental manuscripts expert Prof Jayadhir Thirumala Rao to the Times of India.
In fact, the first time 'Telangana', the state which is hosting the conference, was coined not in Telugu but in Gond language. The Gond script dating back to about 2000 years refers to the term, Telangadh, which means south, reported Times of India. As for material evidence, the earliest reference to the term dates back to 1324 CE when Mohammad Bin Tughlak referred to the region as Mulk-i-Tilang.
The Qutub Shahis and Asaf Jahis also brought a lot of changes to the Telugu script.
The conference will commemorate all the litterateurs, writers, poets and others who have contributed to the growth and spread of the language and a few resolutions  seeking that Telugu be made a compulsory subject till class XII at all schools in Telangana and it will be made mandatory for all government and private institutions to put up signboards in Telugu, will be passed.
