Like many disillusioned about life by love, Vemana, the popular mystic-poet of the Telugu people, learned to disregard the material life from a failed love affair.
In one story, he had fallen in love with a Devdasi (a temple dancer), whose mother had an eye for Vemana’s sister-in-law’s jewellery. She told him he could not visit anymore until he had brought her those jewels.
Desponded, Vemana returned to his home and didn’t eat for a couple of days. His sister-in-law noticed, and pried the story out of him. Once he had told her, she laughed and handed him her jewels – shaking her head, as the story goes.
He brought the jewels to his lover but was repelled by the greed with which she seized them. The contrast of his sister-in-law’s nonchalant yet sweet generosity struck him. This began his journey to becoming one of the most famous mystic poets of his time.
Copyright©Madras Courier, All Rights Reserved. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from madrascourier.com and redistribute by email, post to the web, mobile phone or social media.Please send in your feed back and comments to [email protected]
