Keshavasuta

Krishnaji Keshav Damle (Marathi: कृष्णाजी केशव दामले) (March 15, 1866 - November 7, 1905) was a Marathi poet from Maharashtra, India, who wrote poetry under the pen name Keshavasuta or Keshavsut (केशवसुत).

Damle was born on March 15, 1866 in the town of Malgund near Ratnagiri. His house has been preserved a museum—Keshavsut Smarak—in Malgund near Ganpatipule. There is a short video of that house. The house is also pictured in the photo on the right.

He attended high schools in four different towns at different times: Baroda, Wardha, Nagpur, and Pune. He registered in 1884 at New English School in Pune, where patriots Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Gopal Ganesh Agarkar, and a few others were then serving as teachers. These Indian independence activists inspired nationalism in Damle.

We may gather that he had a morose face (as a student) based on a poem he wrote titled Face of the Poet. In the poem, he wrote that a teacher in school mocked him in front of the class for having a morose face, and he replied that when he is well-known as a poet will they ask "how was the face of the poet?" He wrote poems against the caste system also. And this poem, Face of the Poet, can be seen as a poem against "lookism".

In his high school, Damle was good at Marathi, English, and Sanskrit languages, but very weak in mathematics. He could thus pass the high school matriculation examination only at his third attempt at age as late as 23. Disappointed, Damle terminated his formal education, and then undertook various low-paying jobs through the rest of his short life to support himself and his family.

Keshavsut and his brothers were intellectually accomplished, and they perhaps achieved greater success than him in their lifetimes. One brother, Moro Keshav Damle wrote a 1,000 page book which is the first scientific grammar of Marathi language (Shastriya Marathi Vyakaran, 1911); and another brother (Sitaram Keshav Damle) was a journalist who helped edit the newspaper, Kesari.

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