Melattur Venkatarama Sastry (1770–1830) was a Telugu poet and playwright who is credited with founding the
Bhagavatha Melas.
Early life
Venkatarama Sastry was born in 1770 in
Melattur in the then
Thanjavur Maratha kingdom. His mother tongue was
Telugu
Telugu may refer to:
* Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India
*Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India
* Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language
** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode
S ...
and his ancestors had migrated in the 1550s after the fall of the
Vijayanagara Empire. Sastry's father was Gopalakrishnayya.
Venkatarama Sastry learnt music and dance from Lakshmanarya. Venkatarama Sastry was fluent in Sanskrit and was a great disciple of
Narasimha.
Works
Some of Venkatarama Sastry's important works are
* ''Prahalada Charitra''
* ''Rukmangada Charitra''
* ''Markandeya Charitra''
* ''Ushaparinayamu''
* ''Harischandra''
* ''Sitakalyanamu''
References
* {{cite book, title=The southern school in Telugu literature, pages=84–85, first=N. Venkata, last=Rao, publisher=
University of Madras, year=1978
1770 births
1830 deaths
People from Thanjavur district