MAHAKAVI DASU SRiRAMULU (1846-1908)

Mahakavi Dasu Sriramulu acclaimed as ‘Second Srinadha’ by Chellapilla Venkata Sastry. Dasu Sreeramulu was the most distinguished of the Telugu poets of the latter half of the nineteenth century. Dasu Sreeramulu was born on April 8,1846 in Kurada, a village in Krishna district. He was a lawyer by profession and a poet and social reformer by choice. His early education was under teachers, but he was a self-taught scholar, qualified himself as a ‘First grade English Pleader’ and practiced for over seventeen years and earned fame and fortune. Later he devoted himself totally to literary and social pursuits. His works, totaling over 35, included every genre of literary creativity. 

His literary works totaling over thirty include the most popular ‘Telugu Nadu’,‘Chakkatla Danda’, ‘Surya Sathakamu’ and the Magnum opus ‘Sri Devi Bhagavathamu‘. He was also a vaageyakara (music composer) whose compositions were written mainly with Abhinaya perspective, ‘Kruthulu, Padamulu Javaleelu ’ are dedicated to Lord Venugopala Swamy, the presiding deity at Thotlavalluru. They are rendered by contemporary Kuchipudi dancers and musicians such as Smt.Sriragam Gopalaratnam, Voleti Venkateswerlu, Hyderabad Brothers, Malladi Brothers, Yarramilli Ramaprabha, Komanduri Seshadri etc.  Famous Gurus and choreographers of Kuchipudi used to consult him on the nuances of Abhinaya and Devadasis of his times learnt the fine points in dance from his demonstrations and staged his compositions.