TELUGU ( 73,000,000 SPEAKING IN THE WORLD )
Originally, Andhra was the name of a nomadic tribe. The place where they finally settled was named Andhra and the language spoken by them was called "Andhra Bhasha". Different tribes in the region spoke different dialects of Andhra Basha. Telugu, spoken by the tribes Dravida, Yaksha and Naga is the language spoken by the people of Andhra Pradesh today. It took over a thousand years for the Telugu language to evolve. Telugu belongs to the family of Dravidian languages. It resembles Tamil, Kannada, and Tulu.
The Sathavahanas were the local officials of the Maurya rulers of North. They were the mediators between the people of North and South India. The Satavahana kings conversed in the language, Prakruth.
Prakruth, which was the unrefined form of Sanskrit was considered as the official language of the Kings. The dialects of Prakruth became the local languages of the people. A lot of Buddhist books have been written in Prakruth. However, Telugu language was spoken by the King's subjects. Inscriptions of Telugu words on rocks were first observed after the Sathavahana period.
URDU ( 56,584,000 SPEAKING IN THE WORLD )
is the State language of Jammu and Kashmir and is spoken by more than 28 million people In India. Urdu and Hindi have proceeded from the same source i.e., Khariboli. Urdu is written in the Persio-Arabic script and contains many words from the Persian language.
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ASSAMESE ( 14,604,000 SPEAKING IN INDIA )
is the state language of Assam and is spoken by nearly 60 percent of the State's population. The origin of this language dates back to the 13th century.
According to researchers, Assamese is a sibling of Bengali, the parent language being Sanskrit. 
The Assamese pronunciation of words derived from Sanskrit is such as to render the supposition of Bengali origin. However a section of researchers say that the two languages were derived in parallel from Sanskrit.
BENGALI ( 196,000,000 SPEAKING IN THE WORLD )
is the language spoken by the people of West Bengal. The origin of this language is traced back to the tenth century. The ancestors of this language are the Indo-Aryan. The Bengali script originated from the Brahmi alphabets.
Bengali has two literary styles - Sadhubhasa and Chaltibhasa. Sadhubhasa is the traditional literary style based on the sixteenth century Bengali. This style makes use of compound words as in Sanskrit.
GUJARATI ( 44,000,000 SPEAKING IN THE WORLD )
is the language of Gujarat. The Gujarathi script is similar to the Hindi script, except for the horizontal line over the letters.
Gujarati is Indic in origin and has branched out from the Indo-European group of languages. It is the language of the Indian immigrants in East Africa, Britain, and America.
HINDI ( THE RASHTRABHASHA - 182,000,000 SPEAKING IN THE WORLD )
is the mother tongue of most Indians. It is an expressive language that has descended from Sanskrit and Urdu. Devnagri is the script of Hindi. The Dravidians, Turkish, Arabs, Portuguese and the English have influenced this language.
Hindi poems and songs convey emotions using simple words. Several dialects of Hindi are used in literature works. Some of them are Marwari, Braj, Avadhi, Bhojpuri.
Most of the official communications from the Central Government of India are made in Hindi.
KANNADA ( 33,664,000 SPEAKING IN THE WORLD )
is the state language of Karnataka and is spoken by 65 percent of the state's population. It belongs to the Dravidian family, and dates back to the 9th Century as an independent language.
MARATHI ( 64,783,000 SPEAKING IN INDIA )
is the language spoken by the people of Maharastra. It is the southern most Indo-Aryan language, which has its roots in Sanskrit. Marathi is also said to be a descendent of Maharastri, a Prakrit language, spoken by the people of Maharastra. The Marathi script, Balbodh, is a modified version of the Devanagiri script.
Marathi is a language that has been constantly under the influence of other languages and has been through continuous transformation to what it is today. Marathi words are categorised into tatsam, words derived fom Sanskrit, and tadbhav, words which have been modified from the Sanskrit word. Marathi has also absorbed a few words of Kannada and Telugu.
The dialects of Marathi are Varhaddi, spoken in Vidarba region, and Dangii, spoken in Maharastra-Gujarat border.
MALAYALAM ( 34,014,000 SPEAKING IN THE WORLD )
is the language spoken by the people of Kerala, the southern state of India. It is a part of the Dravidian languages. Malayalam compositions are of three types.
There are a lot of devotional compositions and hymns in Malayalam. Swathi Thirunal is a notable King who has written a lot of Keerthanas or Kruthis - praises of the God in Malayalam. He also patronized Malayalee poets and literary artists.
PUNJABI ( 70,833,844 SPEAKING IN THE WORLD )
is a language that belongs to the Indo-Aryan family and is the official language of the State of Punjab. Punjabi, though very ancient, turned literary around the 15th Century.
From the 19th Century, Punjabi showed vigorous development in all branches of literature. It is written in Gurmukhi script, created by the Sikh Guru, Angad.
TAMIL ( 62,000,000 SPEAKING IN THE WORLD )
is the language spoken by the people of Tamil Nadu. It is a member of the Dravidian family of languages. Acording to legends, Tamil is about ten thousand years old, and is connected with prehistoric ancient civilizations.
Silapathigaram, the story of Kannagi who burnt Madurai; Manimegalai, a saint who worked for the cause of society, are some of the famous literary works. Barathiar, a renowned freedom fighter is a Tamil poet, who has written numerous poems.
