He was known as a trusted messenger of military plans and diplomatic secrets during the preparation and eve of the First Serbian Uprising.

He lost his eyesight at his age of sixteen or seventeen, and from then on he began to compose epic songs of current events on the gusle.

There, in 1816, he was instrumental in rejecting an offer to settle Serbs en masse permanently in the Dniester Canyon as immigrants.

(This distinctive manner of singing was mentioned in 1551 in Lipova regarding the performance of the Serbian bard, Dimitrije Karaman, who entertained the Turkish beg, Ulman.)

In 1817, he returned to Serbia, where he was seen and valued guest in Prince Miloš Obrenović's Palace, and lived until his death on September 9, 1844.