The gallows
wears a janeu.
It's a pandit
that offers sandhya vandana and chants vedas;
It is
a lighthouse
in the heart of manu dharma;
It's the venom bearing fang
of the four-headed
Hindu serpent king;
In the shade of its hood
the Hawala-wallahs enact their orgies of greed.
Chalapathi, Vijayavardhanam
struggle in its venomous fangs !
You might disagree
but Sriman Gallows Shastri
has limitless love
only for the untouchables..!
My translation of the Telugu poem 'Chalapathi Vijayavardhanam', from the collection of poetry 'Sivasagar Kavitvam', by K. G. Satyamurthy ('Sivasagar').
Gantela Vijayavardhana Rao and Sathuluri Chalapathi Rao were a couple of Dalit convicts who had been sentenced to death by a court in Guntur in 1995. For more details, please read this news story.