The Telugu country is nearly twice larger than the Tamil, but is less thickly populated. Considerable colonies of Telugu people have been formed in the Tamil country, who retain their own language. The Telugu country, as a border land, has been subject to the devastation and rapacious oppression of conquerors from a dis tance, who yet would not so far settle among its people as to blend and have common interests with them, or establish well-ordered governments among them. The whole face of the country— dotted with hill forts, destitute of irrigation, with (till lately) large tracts of waste land, bare of gardens—bears testimony to this. The fewness of flourishing towns and of large temples •, the presence, in all the larger villages, of petty forts, and in most of the smaller villages of round towers commanding the doors of all the houses, from which' to fire upon gang robbers ; the style in which the best houses are built, everything being sacrificed to strength and security,—all have the same significance. The abject servility towards courts and cutcherries is .shown by the term devaravaru, God, with the honorific plural, applied to a superior, while the genius of the language forbids the use of anything but the singular for the deity. The common word in use for saving or taking care of anything, as money, is dapettee, hide. Only after the Disarmino. Act, consequent on the 1857 mutiny, the peopre of all classes got out of the habit of carryints arms with them. Except along the coast, hardry any Europeans penetrated into the Telugu country earlier than the beginning of the 19th century, and only since its middle have the efforts even of Christian missionaries extended beyond the limits of the town where they established themselves. The Telugu people compared with the Tamil are physically a larger, handsomer, and more robust race, partaking much of the Aryan element. The tall forms, drooping (yet broad) shoulders, and regular Circassian features of the Rayat and Reddi races in particular, are in strong and favourable contrast to the general make of the Tamil people. They are of a free, independent spirit,—not so tractable or plastic as the Tamil people. Under the robbery and oppression. of former rulers, they emigrated, or in their turn became robbers ; slavery is unknown among them. Though they are very jealous for caste as far as they do observe it, and will make great sacrifices for it, nothing like the extreme homage paid by the southern out-castes to the superior castes is either demanded or yielded in the Telugu country. Not like the Tamil people, only tell the Teling a thing, and they'll do it quietly ; say a word to a Tamil, and the Tamilar answer you. Servility is confined to the Brahmans and Muhammadans of courts and cutcherries —regions where the imme diate presence of the former rulers used to be felt.
The Rayat has a firm, stolid attitude, and a free, steady stare. The people avail themselves with avidity of their rights as soon as they become aware of them. The abuses that prevailed under the supposed sanction of Government were count less, but wherever it became known that any one of them WilS unlawful, it soon passed away. Telugu people, with all their ignorance, are ever ready to petition and appeal and to fight for their rights to the last. They are very faithful and submis sive to lawful authority. Sircar is a magic word with them ; and it is hard to say what extent of wrong they will not endure, if they believe it sanctioned by Government. Whether it is that the hard rule of their former masters taught them submission, or whether the instincts of a people emerging on the whole under a kind Governnaent from a state of desperate oppression and anarchy to one of prosperity are necessarily peaceable, or whether, again, the nearness of the Nizam's dominions to all parts of the British Telugu country teaches them to appreciate their present masters,—resistance to official power is never in any case dreamed of. They will evade, cheat, run away, appeal,—anything but resist. You never hear of a riot among the Telugu people, though they are spirited enough. The Tamil sepoy may perhaps be the more smart and active ; but for good behaviour, solid steadiness in the ranks, and discipline, the Telugu man carries the palm.
The Telugu people not only are a conquering race, but in times of oppression and famine, when other Hindus remain to die in crowds, are used to emigrate, and wherever they go they attain respect ability among the classes to which they belong. A largo proportion of Telugu Brahmans, inerchantis and bazarmen in Madras, hold very fair positions in their respective ranks. A good sprinkling of IttaIdi is to be found as far south as Tinne velly. The numerous body called in the Tamil country Badagar or Vaduvar, north - men, are Telugu, and belong to the kapu or rapt, or agricultural class. All the bearers and 1Vaddaru in the south aro of Telugu origin. The flow of emigration gradually cea.sed with the returning prosperity of the country, and the rapid improve ment of the Telugu people under what little European influence they have enjoyed, is a fair index to their capabilities. Their towns are beginning to be something worthy of tho name. Money and the marks of it are rapidly on the increase. In the Rajamundi7 district and other parts, the people have thrown themselves into the indigo and cotton trade ; and by traffic, under immense disadvantages, they make the western as well as the eastern coast their own.—Rer. Dr. Caldwell.