Need leads! Vemana - The Telugu Poet.

[Idiappam]

Vemana - the Telugu Reformist/poet of the 13th century.

Can someone tell me more of him and his works. please!

Or any pointers to web-sites that carries his works, translation, or information??

Thank you all!

[NOV]

Introduction to poet Vemana


VEMANA IN ENGLISH VERSE (Telugu-English): Translated into English by K. Srinivasa Sastry and Usha K. Srinivas; Copies from Yugadi Publishers, 303, Amulya Apartments, Tarnaka, Hyderabad-500017. Rs. 80.

YOGI VEMANA defies all labels. He is not an atheist but cannot be called a theist either, although a believer. He is not a beloved poet of the Telugu people as Pothana is, but is a part of their daily lives.

He did not go about preaching his ideas, but they nevertheless form part of the daily thinking of the people; again, his ideas and logic are unchallengeable but no one follows them.

Variously ascribed to the 15th or 17th century, Vemana (a Kaapu) is clearly to the Telugus what Thiruvalluvar is to the Tamil people, and Sarvagna for Kannadigas.

He has said what Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Ambedkar, Gandhiji and Periyar said centuries later. You can find in his poetry C.N. Annadurai's humour, Periyar's cynicism, Gandhiji's humaneness and Ambedkar's scholarly approach.

But still his ideas, expressed far more powerfully than any of these later day social reformers, did not set on fire either the Krishna or the Godavari, primarily because there was no media in those days like the printed word or the cinema.

Vemana is a people's poet. Not formally educated, he seems to have acquired some knowledge of poetics. He could not obviously handle Sanskritised Telugu and used pure Telugu, simple and straightforward, and wrote his poetry in one particularly simple metre, Aata Veladhi.

This style takes his ideas straight to the heart but unfortunately rests there without bringing about any consequential change in people's attitudes.

The simple beauty of these verses, which caught the imagination of a three-year-old girl, is what made her grand parents, the present authors, attempt to render them in English so that they can reach a wider audience.

Who cannot be touched by such verses as ``skilful is one who says he knows not, blame befalls one who says he knows, the silent one is the wisest''. ``Salt and camphor look alike, seen with care their tastes differ, (thus) are the pious different (from others)''. ``A son with no regard for mother and father, what for is he born, what for does he die? In termite hills are born termites, do they not die''.


It is of course a tough job for anyone to translate these simple verses in English. The authors have done a good job but some translations are not happy. ``Neechulu'' for example is translated as ``mean'' but ``petty'' perhaps is a better word.

Again, the fourth foot in most verses, ``Viswadaabhirama vinura Vema'' is translated as ``Beloved of the bounteous etc.,'' which is clearly not correct.

As pointed by Rallapalli Ananthakrishna Sarma in his introduction to the Vavilla edition, Viswatha means ``Prapanchatvamu'', or seeing everyone in oneself and oneself in everyone. Here the line means, ``Listen Vemana, who is the beloved of the world because he saw everyone as himself''. For non-Telugus this book is certainly a good introduction to Vemana.

G.D.

source: http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/2001/07/10/stories/13100177.htm

[NOV]

Go here for translations of his verses:

http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vov/

[Idiappam]

He has said what Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Ambedkar, Gandhiji and Periyar said centuries later. You can find in his poetry C.N. Annadurai's humour, Periyar's cynicism, Gandhiji's humaneness and Ambedkar's scholarly approach.

That's interesting. Great Vemana!


Vemana is a people's poet. Not formally educated, he seems to have acquired some knowledge of poetics. He could not obviously handle Sanskritised Telugu and used pure Telugu, simple and straightforward, and wrote his poetry in one particularly simple metre, Aata Veladhi.

Thank you, Mr NOV. I shall look at work. Be back here later!

[aravindhan]

If you can read Telugu, try these sites:

http://www.vema.freehosting.net/index.htm
http://members.rediff.com/telugu/telugutoranam.htm

He uses a very unsanskritised Telugu which has a lovely rhythm, and some of the thoughts he expresses really remind one of the Kural.

[gaddeswarup]

I am in the middle of a trip and in any case I live abroad. I cannot give too many referencess but can only say that Vemana is one of my favourite Telugu thinker/poets. I remember a scholarly volume of essays on Vemana by Rallapalli Anantakrishna Sarma based on lectures at Andhra university following C.R.Reddi's request. These are in Telugu and may be available in some of the digital libraries. There is also a volume edited by Narla Venkateswara Rao; "Vemana, Pachatyulu". The title means "Vemana, foreigners" and this may be avaialble both in Telugu and English. It is a collection of essays by foreigners on Vemana. My understanding is that even though Vemana was popular with working class folk, particularly farmers, his agnostic and some times anti-religious sayings were not popular with the pundits. When Brown translated some of his poems and made them a part of a school syallabus, there were boycotts. About 450 copies of the book were lost. I used to have Telugu versions of both the above books but not any more. To this day that bias seems to continue and in some anthologies of even old Telugu poetry, Vemana does not appear. My impression is that he is the tradition of independent thinkers like sidhars of Tamilnadu. Probably such thinkers appeared in various regions of India though out the centuries but Vemana is remembered more among Telugus because of his economy of thought and poetic abilities.
swarup
Swarup

[Idiappam]

If you can read Telugu, try these sites:

http://www.vema.freehosting.net/index.htm
http://members.rediff.com/telugu/telugutoranam.htm

He uses a very unsanskritised Telugu which has a lovely rhythm, and some of the thoughts he expresses really remind one of the Kural.

I can't read Telugu, what a pity! Thank you, Aravindhan!

Can you post some of his words here, romanised! Especially those resembling the Kural.

[gaddeswarup]

Sri Kiran, one of the moderators of Telugudanam group has sent the following links (RTS is scheme of writing in English Script):
'Verses of Vemana' translated from Telugu by C.P.Brown
(1829) :
http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vov/

'vEmana padyAlu' in

RTS:
http://www.teluguworld.org/Nuggets/vemana.html

Telugu Unicode:
http://telugutanam.blogspot.com/2005/06/blog-post.html

Tamil Unicode:
http://www.telugutanam.com/vemana/vemanatamil.htm

Tamil gif:
http://www.telugutanam.com/vemana/vemanatamilgif.htm


'Verses of Vemana' (Telugu script,meanings in
English):
http://www.vema.freehosting.net/

'vEmana Satakamu' (Telugu script and meanings)
http://achutapavan.tripod.com/Telugu/vemanasatakam/

Swarup

[hehehewalrus]

Here is a translation of a an all-time great Telugu poem:
http://www.image-in-asian.com/ramesh_m/ramesh43.html

:lol:

[sundararaj]

Oh...Vemana, the great. Thanks for the valuable information.