Vemana Introduction

Vemana
from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Vemana is a Telugu poet. He has composed numerous poems in Telugu inAata Veladhi metre which consists of four lines; but the fourth line,with some exceptions, is a mere refrain or chorus in these wordsViswadabhirama Vinura Vema. Vemana's style is simple and his poemsdeal with various social problems and they propose some solutions too.He expresses the feelings of a social reformer and many of his poemscriticise and awaken the ardent followers of the old traditions.Many lines of Vemana's poems managed to become colloquial phrases ofthe Telugu language. All poems end with the signature lineViswadhaabhi Raama, Vinura Vema. There are also many interpretions ofwhat the last line signifies. It is commonly believed that Viswadhawas his lover and neglected other responsibilities in his youth andlater realised and became a saint and poet. He is also known as YogiVemana.

Though Vemana Satakam (literally means collection of 100 poems thoughhe actually wrote a couple of thousands) is very famous in Teluguliterature relatively very less is known about the actual poet. Thepoems were collected and published by C.P.Brown. His poems are of manykinds, social, moral, satirical and mystic nature. All of the vemanapoems are in Ataveladi (dancing lady) meter.Vemana was a capu (Reddy) and native of Cuddapah district and believedto have lived in Gandikota area of the district but there is nounanimous agreement among scholars about the period of Vemana.C.P.Brown who did extensive work on Vemana in his preface to Englishtranslation Verses of Vemana states that the date of birth Vemanastates in verse 707 to be Vemana's date of birth. The cyclical date ofHindu calendar coincides with 1652. Brown also adds that from theexamination of his works it is satisfactorily proven that vemana wrotein the later part of 17th century.Vemana belongs to reddy dynasty.it was CP Brown who considered him as a kapu.

Refer the link for more…..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reddy#Reddy_Dynasty
For more on vemana in wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vemana


continue to next post for his famous telugu poems and it's translations in english