Nostalgia: Jaggayya's Great Poetry 'Sidhilahampi'

Jaggayya, the renowned yester years' actor was a great poet which is known only for literary circles and his close mates. He penned a historical metrical verses on Hampi, the capital of Sri Krishna Deva Raya, with the title 'Sidhila Hampi'.

The poet's anguish after looking at the pillaged Hampi and correlating it with the glorified records in History book is aptly depicted in the poems. He penned all those poems in metrical schemes (Chandas) which can be written by only scholarly poets. His poetic fervor was on par with big poets like Gunturu Seshendra Sharma and Viswanatha Satyanarayana.

He also translated Rabindra Nath Tagore's 'Geetanjali' into Telugu. But his celebrity status as an actor dominated the poet in him and people hardly know about that talent in him.