REGIONAL IDENTITY AND BEGINNINGS OF VERNACULAR LITERATURE 13 In South Andhra Pradesh, too, it is the same process that began to operate, but with a difference that ultimately created a distinctive "Telugu consciousness" amongst its native speakers. An explanation for this phenomenon is to be sought in the quality, pace, and scale of change, and in the nature of options that were available to these classes in the then existing historical milieu. Two factorsinparticularappeartohavebeeninstrumental for the rise of Telugu consciousness. First, the new class of military leaders and mercenaries rising from various tribal-ethnic groups of the region had to act unitedly, cutting across their earlier tribal affiliations, so as to gain advantage from the neighboring Pallava and Calukya powers. Second, to be effective in retaining its position of strength, the new class required continuous reinforcement of its cadres from their tribal base. The mechanism that could simultaneously serve as both intra-tribal and intertribal solidarity could have been the language spoken in common by these groups. The common language could reinforce the idea of distinctiveness of the people of this region as separate from the external rival powers operating here, viz. the KamStaka Calukya and the Tamil Pallava. It was indeed the choice made by these newly emerging chieftains; the use of Telugu as their official medium is well documented in their inscriptions. These not only happen to be the earliest written records in the region, but also the earliest Telugu records in the whole of the Andhra country. There was another circumstantial reason for this Telugu choice. As known from elsewhere in the history of this country, it is in this stage characterised by the rise of the nobility and the landed class that the process of Sanskritization begins to operate, with some essential requirements of the society like symbolic rituals, status symbols, cultured language and script being provided by the Sanskritic cultural leadership.16 Demonstrating the play of this process in the region are a number of inscriptions recording land grants to brahmans (Radhakrishna 1971 :nos. 2,6-9,13, 24,49-50,56,74, etc.). But perhaps the level of economy of the region just rising up from the subsistence stage did not permit the establishment of any colony of brahmans (^graharas). All land grant inscriptions show that they were made to individual brahmans, and these lands, by virtue of their location in this dry region of Rayalaseema, were perhaps too unattractive for brahmans to immigrate from the well-settled agraharas in culturally advanced regions. If personal names are any indication (e.g., Revanakalu, Reva^arma, Cedi^arma) (Radhakrishna 1971 :nos. A.3,7,49,50,56,73), at least some of these appear to have come from another semi-aboriginal tract, the Reva region in Madhya Pradesh. The number and quality of these brahman immigrants were possibly insufficient to establish their cultural superiority in any substantial measure, nor could they establish strong bases of Sanskritic learning. With this feeble situation of Sanskrit and its promoters, theneed of the emerging upper class of the local society had to be fulfilled with other choices available. The alternative could be only Telugu, which suited their interests well and which could become possible perhaps because of the contribution of the small community of Jaina monks spread out in this region. It is well known that the Jains