[15] A significant number of Telugus also reside in the Indian states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Maharashtra.
Members of the Telugu diaspora are spread across countries like United States, Australia, Malaysia, Mauritius, UAE and others.
[20] In the Mahabharata, the infantry of Satyaki was composed of a tribe called the Andhras, known for their long hair, tall stature, sweet language, and mighty prowess.
[21] Megasthenes reported in his Indica (c. 310 BCE) that the Andhras, living in the Godavari and Krishna river deltas, were famous for their formidable military strength, which was second only to that of the Maurya Empire in the entire Indian subcontinent.
[31] Vijaya Ramaswamy compared it to the overwhelming dominance of French as the cultural language of modern Europe during roughly the same era.
[37][38] Telugu performing arts include the classical dance form Kuchipudi, as well as Perini Sivatandavam, and Burra Katha.
[41][42] The industry has produced some of India's most expensive and highest-grossing films, influencing Indian popular culture well beyond Telugu-speaking regions.
Scholar Charles P. Brown made a comment that it was a "strange notion" since the predecessors of Appa Kavi had no knowledge of such a derivation.
[54] George Abraham Grierson and other linguists doubt this derivation, holding rather that Telugu was the older term and Trilinga must be the later Sanskritisation of it.
[19] Andhras were an ancient non-Aryan tribe of south-central Indian subcontinent, whose existence is attested during the Iron Age.
As per Iravatham Mahadevan, non-Aryan people living beyond the borders of the region inhabited by the Indo-Aryan speakers were known as the Andhras.
In the Mahabharata the infantry of Satyaki was composed by a tribe called Andhras, known for their long hair, tall stature, sweet language, and mighty prowess.
Sahadeva defeated the kingdoms of Pandya, Andhra, Kalinga, Dravida, Odra and Chera while performing the Rajasuya Yajna.
Andhras were mentioned by Megasthenes in his Indica (c. 310 BCE) as being second only to Mauryans in military strength in the entire Indian subcontinent.
During the fourth century, the Pallava dynasty extended their rule across southern Andhra Pradesh and Tamilakam and established their capital at Kanchipuram.
[73] During this period, the Telugu language emerged as a literary medium with the writings of Nannaya, Tikkana, Eranna, Pothana etc.
The fall of the Kakatiya dynasty led to an era with competing influences from the Turkic kingdoms of Delhi and the Persio-Tajik sultanate of central India.
[76] The arrival of Europeans (the French under the Marquis de Bussy-Castelnau and the English under Robert Clive) altered polity of the region.
In 1765, Clive and the chief and council at Visakhapatnam obtained the Northern Circars from Mughal emperor Shah Alam.
The Lok Sabha approved the formation of Telangana from ten northwestern districts of Andhra Pradesh on 18 February 2014.
The earliest inscription completely written in Telugu dates to 575 CE were found at Kalamalla village in Kadapa district.
[81] It developed as a religious art linked to traveling bards, temples and spiritual beliefs, like all major classical dances of India.
[86][87] Amaravati school flourished under the local Sada rulers, Satavahanas, and Andhra Ikshvakus till 325–340 CE.
Largely because of the maritime trading links of the East Indian coast, the Amaravati school of sculpture had great influence on art in South India, Sri Lanka, and South-East Asia.
[94] It is a fusion of Dravidian architecture and Nagara Bhumija styles in which sandbox technology is used to construct Vimana—horizontal stepped tower.
[16][98] Telugu speakers number more than 1,000,000 in the United States, with the highest concentration in Central New Jersey, Texas, and California.