Andhrasabdacintamani

The Andhrasabdacintamani ["A treatise (literally: a wish-fulfilling gem) on Andhra speech-forms"] consists of two hundred and seventy four Sanskrit sutras that perfectly describe the Telugu language. Organized into five chapters that reflect the rich Sanskrit and Prakrit tradition of grammatical analysis, this work presents metalinguistic terminology that borrows from the work of India's ancient language experts from Panini onwards, develops "rules" of Telugu sandhi or sound coalescence, provides descriptions of Telugu nominal bases and verbal stems ending in vowels and consonants, and masterfully Andhrasabdacintamani may be the earliest grammar of the Telugu language, if we accept a tradition that attributes the text to the eleventh century poet-scholar Nannaya. Even if it is a later work, it stands as an enormously influential work that. shaped the growth of Telugu language and learning and, through its influence on the widely known Balavyakaranamu of Cintayasuri,-continues to have a role in the jog education system today. This edition and English translation of the Andhrasabdacintamani hopes to inaugurate a new stream of research on the important intersections of languages use and linguistics that have shapes the local cultures of Indian for the past one thousand years. The text has been given in Devnagari script, with Roman transliteration, and Telugu script. To supplement the English translation, an explanatory note for each sutra, along with examples, have been provided.