> Incidentally, the Telugu king the French (not Portugese) general (called
> bUsI in Telugu) defeated was the Velama king of Bobbili, Rangarao, The
> battle was fought in 1757. The French sided with the Vijayanagar against
> Bobbili in that battle. You may still find the heroic story of Bobbili sung
> as an epic by folk singers. I have several recordings of this popular folk
> epic. There was even a movie, bobbili yuddham, made of this story.
>
There was also a more recent movie called taanDra paapaaraayuDu.
>
> >corresponding Telugized words for the british and french.
>
> French were called Farangulu, as were any foreigners and there were several
> words for the English, but tella doralu replaced all of them. Greeks were
> called yavanas in Sanskrit texts as you probably know. No Telugu word,
> perhaps not so much because they did not come that far south, but Telugu is
> not a language that goes that far back.
>
'paraasu' was another word for French, I believe. I remember
seeing the word used in the bobbiliyuddham drama and ballads.
farangee, farangulu seemed to be used for all foreigners. I hear
this word often in Hindi movies.
'Palaka' had an interesting post in SCIT a few weeks ago about the
etymology for the word 'yavana', which apparently refers to the Ionian
Greeks.
Regards. --- V. Chowdary Jampala