BRAHMARISHI
DR. UMER ALI SHAH
TELUGU POET
"A really great man has ideas always greater than himseif'" This is more true of Dr. Umer Ali Shah, the immortal poet of the Telugu language, than anyone else. He was born in March 1887 in Pittapuram, a town in the Andhra State of India.
Though he had no proper education he developed a great taste for Telugu which was not his mother tongue, and began writing verse when he was a teenager. The genius of the boy was at once recognized by Telugu scholars and his fame grew as a poet by the time he was 18.
He wrote plays in Telugu which can only find a parallel in Shakespeare's. Many Hindu poets and scholars began to pay tribute to this Muslim poet of the Telugu language and regarded him as a itern-poet in the Carlylian senes of the word.
His writings took a new shape in all branches of literature. Besides poetry he wrote novels, plays and essays which excelled the writings of the renowned Telugu scholars of the twentieth century, and so on his works found a permanent place in the annals of Telugu literature.
Today he stands alone like a pole star guiding those who are interested in Telugu literature, and he is acknwledged as their great master who brought a change over literary forms in Telugu.
He also made fresh departures in almost every form of literature. His poetry has no parallel in Telugu, despite the great writers whose works no doubt come nearer to his standard, and yet, lack that charm and cadence, lucidity and masterly style both in narration and criticism.
His vast knowledge of Sanskit in which language also he was a scholar, contributed effectively towards his prodigious efforts in Telugu. With his contribution Telugu leterature would be nowhere as rich as it is today.
