Telugu people


The Telugu people or Telugu vaaru, also rendered as Telugus, are a Dravidian ethnic group who speak Telugu as their native language and/or trace their ancestry to the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. There is also a large significant Telugu population in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The Telugu language is the third-most spoken native language in India and the fourth most in the Indian subcontinent, following Hindi, Bengali and Marathi.

History

Telugu is a South-Central Dravidian language primarily spoken in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, India, where it is an official language. Early inscriptions date from 575 AD and literary texts from the 11th century, Telugu Script evolved into the Telugu-Kannada alphabet|Old Kannada script

Culture

Literature

Arts

Kuchipudi is a famous Classical Indian dance from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, India.
  1. Uttareeyam or Pai Pancha
  2. Pancha
  3. Jubba The top portion
  4. Lungi
  1. Langa Oni
  2. Lehenga
  3. sari

    Festivals

Important festivals celebrated by Telugu people include:

Distribution

Telugu is the third most spoken language after Hindi and Bengali in India. Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are the principal resident states for Telugu people.
Telugu people form the majority speakers in South India with over 75 million speakers in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. This is followed by 3.7 million in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu making them the second largest language groups in those neighboring states.

In Karnataka, Telugu people are predominantly found in the border districts with majority in Bangalore city. In Tamil Nadu, Telugu people who migrated during the Vijayanagara period have spread across several northern districts.

In Maharashtra the Telugu population is over 1.4 million, followed by 0.7 million in Orissa. Other states with significant populations include West Bengal and Chhattisgarh with 200,000 and 150,000 respectively.
The overseas Telugu diaspora numbers more than 800,000 in the United States, with the highest concentration in Central New Jersey, Texas, and California.

Notable Telugu people