Tirupati Venkata Kavulu

Tirupati Venkata Kavulu refers to the Telugu poet duo Divakarla Tirupati Sastry (1872–1919) and Chellapilla Venkata Sastry (1870–1950). These twin poets are acclaimed as the harbingers of modern poetry in Telugu. They have dramatised several of the Hindu epics into dramas and plays consisting of singable verses set to perfect meter. Several of their plays, especially pandavodyogavijayalu have been extremely popular with many drama clubs and audiences across Andhra Pradesh. Venkata Sastry has trained a large number of later age poets including Viswanatha Satyanarayana, Pingali Lakshmikantam and Veturi Sundararama Murthy.

He was born on 26 March 1872 at Yendagandi village in Bhimavaram Taluk of West Godavari District in Andhra Pradesh, India. His father Venkata Avadhani was a great vedic scholar and a devotee of Sun God. He studied under Boorla Subbarayudu, Garimella Lingaiah, Pammi Peri Sastry and Charla Brahmaiah Sastry. During the study period under Charla Brahmaiah Sastry, Chellapilla Venkata Sastry joined them. He was sharp and talented and could silence his opponent in no time in argumentation. Venkata Sastry was unique in his own way, could compose verse in Telugu and make discourses on the puranic topics and hence would not brook Tirupati Sastry's supremacy. Once the teacher advised the students to celebrate Ganesh Navaratri, for which they needed money. They pooled their talents for collecting money for the celebrations. Slowly during these student days they understood each other and appreciated each other's talent. Venkata Sastry went to Benares and upon his return Tirupati Sastry joined him in composing poetry and performing Sataavadhaanam at Kakinada. From then, till Tirupati Sastry's death parted them, they composed together for life. Even afterwards Venkata Sastry published all his work under their common authorship. All through his life Tirupati Sastry treated Venkata Sastry as his guru. They together performed many avadhaanams, composed Dhaturatnakara, made a trip to Adayar, Madras where Annie Besant praised their talent, visited Venkatagiri Samsthaanam, composed Mulasthaneswara Stuti in Sanskrit and visited Gadwal, Atmakur, Vijayanagaram, Pithapuram samsthaanams which brought them name and fame.

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