In the sylvan and holy seven hills of Tirumala, Saint Annamacharya, lived a deeply devoted life, translating his immense love for Lord Venkateswara, into innumerable gems of poetry and music. Spanning the narrative and the evocative, the temporal and the philosophical, the social and the moral, Annamacharya Sankeerthanas, with the felicity of his poetry and the genius of his musicality, are at once, incredibly simple, yet immensely powerful.

Annamacharya's creations

Annamacharya was born in 1408, and is said to have composed as many as 32,000 sankeerthanas in praise of his beloved, Lord Venkateswara. Compositions, said to have been wrtten on Taalapatra or palm leaves, and later engraved onto Taamrapatra or copper plates.

Of these, around 12,000 un-notated sankeertanas, etched on copper plates, were discovered at Tirumala in 1922, which are now available as Taallapaka Pada Sahityamu, a 29-volune set of Shringara and Adhyatmika Sankeerthanas published by the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD).

Around 1500 of these Sankeerthanas have been set to music by maestro composers such as Sri Nedunuri Krishna Murthy, Dr. Mangalampalli Balamurali Krishna, Srirangam Gopalarathnam, Sri Garimella Balakrishna Prasad, and others.

Sri Sathiraju Venumadhav's contribution

In 2010, Sathiraju Venu Madhav, a bright and rising star on the firmament of Carnatic Music, composed 108 Annamacharya Sankeerthanas, in 108 ragams.

Released as a book and a CD names Annamayya Padamandakini, that was produced by Sujanaranjani, Venumadhav's musical compositions, that laid great emphasis on the Bhava of the poetry, were soon performed by musicians and adapted for dance by senior dancers and Gurus.

Unfortunately, Sathiraju Venumadhav, attained the feet of Sri Venkateswara in April 2019, leaving behind a young family, and, for all of us a treasure of his beautiful compositions.