Stepping up efforts to secure classical language status for Telugu, the Official Language Commission of Andhra Pradesh has written a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh [Images], urging him to fulfil the long-pending demand of the people of the state at the earliest.

Following reports that Kannada is likely to be granted the status shortly, commission chairman A B K Prasad in a letter dated October 4 has underscored the demand.

On May 17 this year, an all-party delegation from the state, led by Culture Minister M Satyanarayana Rao, met and placed the demand before Dr Singh.

Prasad told PTI that the task force appointed to pursue the demand, led by state Culture Minister M Satyanarayana Rao, has submitted a memorandum to Dr Singh, explaining various 'historical-epigraphic, numismatic and literary evidence to prove the historicity' of Telugu.

The demand was also substantiated with references to various research papers published by celebrated linguists and historians, he said.

"The word 'Andhra' first occurs in the Itareya Brahmana of the 7th century. This presupposes the existence of a people and language by that name quite some centuries earlier. An eminent linguist, in fact, concluded that Telugu branched off from the Dravidian family and acquired a separate identity around 10th century BC," he said.

Quoting a Tamil pundit Subramanian Malayandi, Prasad said the scholar has concluded that 'the Indus valley civilisation was not an isolated Tamil culture in north India but parallel civilisations of Tamil and Telugu-speaking people of Dravidian race were flourishing in the Vaigai valley of Tamil Nadu and in Tungabadhra valley of Andhra Pradesh'.

Hailed as the 'Italian of the East', Telugu perfectly deserves to be declared as a classical language with its antiquity dating back to thousands of centuries, he said.

Asked about the demands for declaring Kannada also as a classical language, Prasad said, "We have no grudge against anybody. We will be happy if a sister language of the Dravidian family gets the status".

Andhra Pradesh is going to celebate the golden jubilee of its formation on November 1. If the Centre accords the status before that, it will be a gift to the people of the state, he added. So far, Tamil and Sanskrit have been given the status of classical language.