What is "champu"

Champu or Champu-Kavya ( Devanagari: चम्पु-काव्य) is a genre in Indian Literature originated from Sanskrit. It consists of a mixture of prose (Gadya-Kavya) and poetry passages (Padya-Kavya), with verses interspersed among prose sections.

Traditionally Telugu poets have used the champu way of rendering poetry. Krishnamaacharya carried this tradition of Champu Marga step further by putting his writings mainly in devotional prose called Vachana.

Odia literature is also replete with the champu style poetry. Baladev Rath, Banamali Das, Dinakrushna Das are some of the most famous poets who wrote Champu.

Adikavi Pampa, the Adikavi, one of the greatest Kannada poets of all time, pioneered this style when he wrote his classical works, Vikramarjuna Vijaya (Pampa Bharata) and Adipurana in it, around 940 CE, and which served as the model for all future works in the Kannada.

It was developed after the era of the Ramayana, Mahabharata, Puranas, and the other Mahakavyas and was a later development in the style of writing.