Arudra was an experimentalist and a socialist. He welcomed modern poetry. If Sri Sri (Srinivasarao Srirangam) belongs to the 1st generation of socialist poets in Andhrapradesh, Arudra belongs to the 2nd generation.

Sadasivasankarasastry Bhagavatula, popularly known as Arudra, was born on 31st August 1925 in Visakhaptnam District in a Brahmin family.  He completed his schooling in Visakhapatnam.  In 1942, when Japan bombed Vizag (Visakhapattanam) during 2nd World War, he went to Vijayanagaram and joined in a college.  He was influenced by the ideals of communism due to his close association with Appalaswami Ronamki, Chaso and the likes.

In 1943, he joined air force as a band boy. Soon he left the job and went to Chennai (then Madras) magazine and stayed with his uncle Sri Sri who was a very popular socialist poet by then. He joined “Anandavani” magazine.  In 1947, he left Chennai and came back to Visakhapatnam to work as a photographer. In 1948, he went to Kolkatta,(then Calcutta), for a short while. Later, he came back to Chennai to permanently settle there. He entered the South Indian film field as a lyricist and a scriptwriter. In 1954, he married Ramalakshmi, also a famous writer.  Arudra had diversified personality. He wrote many poems, essays, short stories, dramas, translations, film songs, detective stories, and a book on Chess. He was well versed with magic too.

His works can be classified as follows:
Poems (Kavyas): tvamEvaaham, sinivaali, koonalammapadaalu, iMTiMTipadyaalu.
Lyrics: gaayaalu-gEyaalu, pailaapacceesu, yeMcinapadyaalu, yetikedadi, koMdagaalitirigindi.
Translations: veeratelaMgaaNaviplavageetalu (from English), vennela-vEsavi (from Tamil), kabeerbhaavaalu, and batvaada-Arudra (from Hindi).
Dramas: udgeedha, gEyanaaTika, raadaaribaMgla, saalabhaMjikalu.
Dual Poetry: rukkutEswara Satakam (with Sri Sri), mEmE (with Sri Sri & Varada)
Research Work: samagraaMdhra saahityaM, Arudra vyaasapeeTham, raamudi ki seeta yEmavutuMdi?
Other works: Short stories, mahaneeyulu, cadaraMgaM, cinema scripts and lyrics.

Out of these works, tvamEvaahaM written in 1948 is a masterpiece. It was based on the contemporary violence and lawlessness during Razakar movement in Telangana. The Razakar attrocoties were sponsored by the King Nizam against his own people who wanted to overthrow him in favor of democracy and join the Indian Union, the newly formed democratic republic after independence from the British rule.  In this kaavyam, death spoke to a human being and says, "you and I are the same (tvamEvaahaM)".  Originally, Arudra named it Telangana, but Sri Sri changed it to Tvamevaham. In this work, Arudra experimented with new Tenglish words like cerishiMci (cherish), perishiMci (perish), used burrakatha method and in the last chapter tadhaastu, he used the meter of kandapadyam.   tvamEvaahaM is special in 3 ways: a) theme was a contemporary issue i.e. Razakar & Telangana movements, b) influenced by Marxist communist view,  and c) importance to the style.  Critics say tvamEvaahaM is the best kaavyam which was written in Telugu after independence.

Another popular kaavyam written by him in 1960 was sinivali. It was devoted to cine actor Jaggaiah Kongara as a gift on the eve of his marriage celebration. The most popular lines used by public from sinivaali are:
"jeevithamanE rEdiyo seTTu ki, bharta Eriyel, bhaarya ertu”
(Life is a radio set. Husband is its antenna and wife is its ground/earth (electrical connection))

“abbaayi jeevithaM pajil ki, ammaayi kee solyooshan”
(to the puzzle of boy's life, girl is the key solution)

sinivaali is the story of a middle-class man, Suryarao, who works as a clerk in a city. Arudra compares city life to Eliot Wasteland, which represents immoral society.  Arudra tried to come out of the influence of his uncle Sri Sri and started writing aMtyapraasa in his poetry. “koonalamma padaalu” written in 1964 is an example for it.  In this poem he describes contemporary society in a sarcastic way in a very simple style, e.g.,

“brooTu kEsina voaTu
buradaloa giravaaTu
kaDaku teccunu cETu
O koonalamma”

Once Arudra wrote, "I was born for poetry and took up pen for light in the society." But, in his later days he drowned himself in research work on Telugu literature and spent less time in writing poetry. He left this world on 4th June 1998, but lives in the minds and hearts of Telugu people forever.

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