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Vemana
A poet of the people, a philosopher of equality and a fighting saint, Vemana was unique in many ways. His teachings have much contemporary relevance for he was a dreamer of one world and of the universal brotherhood of man. There is no agreement among the scholors regarding the year of birth of the get poet.No definite dates are, therefore, available regarding his birth or death. However, Vemana is believed to have lived in the later half of the seventeenth century and the first decades of the eighteenth century. He had spent the best part of his life in the Cuddapah and Kurnool Districts of Andhra Pradesh.
A farmer by profession, Vemana was not designed to lead an easy life. He had more than an ordinary man's share of trials and tribulations, and they at once toughened and refined him into a remarkable man. His original insight and varied experiences enabled him to propound three trends in philosophy, a social philosophy, an ethical philosophy and a religious philosophy.
Vemana was an advocate of human equality. He believed that there can be no equality as long as caste and class barriers are not done away with and so he attacked these evils tooth and nail.
Vemana's language is chaste and crisp ;his diction is limpid and smooth, his analogies fresh and bold. His poetry is a spring, pupae and spontaneous and original in thought and style. The metre chosen by Vemana for his poetry is ataveladi. literal meaning is 'A dancing damsel', and Vemana made it dance exquisitely. In his thought, Vemana is akin to Tiruvalluvar, kabir andSarvajna. He is a bard of universal man. His conception of oneness of man is indeed so grand, so all inclusive that he urges-Serve food to all all the people of the world in one plate; make them dine together forgettingall their differences; and with uplifted handbless them live like one.
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