Amongst the four dravidian languages (tamil, telugu, kannada and malayalam) which one was the first to be patronized,
There is an old tamil aphorism,
"Kal thondri man thondra kalathae mun
thondri mutha kudi thamizh kudi"
(Before rocks and stones, before mud
was born a race, the thamizh race)..

speaks volumes of the age of the language. These kind of writings may be misleading. These may be only to eulogise the language or more so to spread the language amongst the people. Its been said that tamizh is the oldest and purest of the dravidian languages. It may be true that it had its own literature (esp the sangam literature) which stood firm even while the vedic literature was dominating other pre-aryan literatures in other languages. The sangam literature dates back to 500 AD when the eight-tu-thogai ( 8 collections) and the pathu-p-paatu (10 Idyls) along with the athi-chu-vadi which laid the grammar for the languages. It is important to note here that even though the last of the four vedas in sanskrit was itself complete by the 10th century BC, it was difficult to converse and a lot of modifications had to be done. The Buddists were the first to branch off from prakrit (the language resulting from the mix up between sanskrit and dravidian languages) and re-christen them into pali. By the time of 600-1000 AD prakrit was the base for churning out a number of indo-aryan languages (Amongst them is Hindi, the national language of India). During this phase between 500AD-1000AD when the indo-aryan languages were born, thamizh was more or less steady. It is also well known that thamizh is the only language which has not borrowed from sanskrit.

Kannada has literature which dates back to 700 AD. A lot of bits and pieces information is only available of the origin of the language and the dates that come along with it. The kannada speaking belt was concentrated more towards present day karnataka and a significant population drifted across to maharashtra as well. But the language was unable to spread beyond karnakata primarily because of its topography. They were being drifted off or pushed out from the north by the aryan-marathi and had innumerable conquests from the tamizh cholas who wanted to spread their own philosophy. Even today a number of other languages like thulu, konkini use kannada scripts and owe their existence to kannada.

The last of the four vedas mentions the name of "Andhra" in its writings meaning to present day Andhra Pradesh. This was around 700 BC. But the actual script came centuries later around 1000 AD mostly influenced by kannada. Telugu initially borrowed from sanskrit and later developed its own dictionary with a strong kannada influence. Usually termed " Italian of the East" for its very mellifluous words, it became quickly attractive for literature and classical music. Innumerable literature and huge classical compositions have always been its forte and helped to grow the language (or has it ??)
Present day, telugu is demographically widely spoken dravidian language and the second most spoken language in India (After Hindi).

Tamil Politicians today wrongly claim that tamil is the truest and purest of the Dravidians. In fact those people who claim this are infact are from other languages. Look at the people who arose to power and have become successful chief ministers in Tamil Nadu M Karunanidhi and Annadurai (Both telugu), Jayalalitha (Half Kannada/Half tamil), MG Ramachandran (Malayalam) and the list goes onn.

How has telugu spread into Thamizh Nadu to this extent ? It is said that 30% of the population in Chennai are telugu speaking people?? How did this happen ???
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