ANANTAPUR: Researchers are not able to locate the whereabouts of the first Telugu inscription known as 'Kalamalla' dating back to 575 AD, found at Sri Chennakesava Swamy temple premises in Kalamalla village in Kadapa district. Researchers from Chennai reportedly conducted a study in 1904 on the first Telugu inscription made during the period of Renati Chola Empire. The then King Erikal Muturaju Dhanunjaya Varma initiated moves to carve out the first Telugu inscriptions in 575. The ASI had also accepted the 42 inches long and 9 inches wide inscription was first one.
Approximately 10,000 pre-colonial inscriptions exist in the Telugu language and totally there are 14,000 inscriptions in Telugu language. Telugu is a South-central Dravidian language. It, however, stands alongside Hindi, English and Bengali as one of the few languages with official primary language status in more than one state. Telugu is the primary language in the states of AP, TS, Yanam and significant linguistic mino-rities in other neighbouring states. It is one of six languages designated a classical language by the Government of India.
According to records, Telugu ranks third by the number of native speakers India (74 million, 2001 census) and 15th in the list of most-spoken languages worldwide. Kadapa writer and Central Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar recipient Vempalle Gangadhar, who has been fighting to find out the inscription approached many departments over the past decade. The writer also published a book naming "Toli Telugu Sasanam".
Local people think that the research team had taken the inscription to the museum at Chennai. Dr Gangadhar addres-sed a letter to the Commissioner of Muse-ums in Chennai four years back asking if the inscription was preserved and was on display. He was taken aback on receiving a reply from S. Selva Arasu, Assistant Director (Admin) of the museum, that no such inscription was available in the Chennai museum.
“I later wrote to the Deputy Superintending Archaeologist of Archaeological Survey of India at Hyderabad and received a reply that the ASI was unaware of the whereabouts of the inscription", he recalled. The only information available with ASI on the Kalamalla inscription was that two researchers K. Neelakantha Sastry and M. Venkataramaiah examined the inscription in 1947-48.
