Page:A grammar of the Teloogoo language.djvu/14

ii A tradition current in Telingana, and noticed by many of its best native Authors, states the original name of this language, as well as that of the country in which it is spoken, to have been Tri-lingum, or in pure Teloogoo Modaga-lingum; namely the language or country of the three lingums: a name derived from the three lingums, or mystic symbols of the divinity, in the form, of which Shiva, the destructive and re-producing power in the Indian Trinity, is reported to have descended upon the mountains of Shri Shuelum or Purvatum, Caleswarum, and Bheemeswarum or Dracharamum, where he is supposed still to hold his awful abode, and is worshipped under the respective names of Mullecarjoona, Calanadha, and Bheemeswara.

These three lingums are said to have marked the chief boundaries of the country known in modern times by the name of Telingana. The first, that of Shri Shuelum,