Page:Biographical Sketches of Dekkan Poets.djvu/159

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CHAKRAPAH.

This poet was a bramin of the Datta family and a native of Tettu, near Mannar Polure in the Nellore district; he was in indigent circumstances and a strict worshipper of Siriram, by the favor of which god (according to tradition) he acquired a quick genius, and not by his own exertions. Chakrapah flourished about one hundred and fifty years ago, and was contemporary with Bangaru Yachama Nadu zemindar of Kalahasti. When this poet was sixteen years of age, he began to compose verses; he was very apt and ready in rhyming, and used often to versify what was spoken to him in colloqual discourse. The fame of this poets talents reached the ears of Yachama Nadu, who became very anxious to see him on that acount, and sent for him, but the poet declined going as his family, would want the necessarise of life should he be absent. The wife of Chakrapa was far advanced in pregnancy, and as he expected her to lie in, and could not procure a milch buffalo, and other necessaries, for the occasion he proceeded to Kalahasti in order to raise funds; while on his journey he