Sri Tallapaka Annamacharya (1408-1503) the mystic saint composer of the 15th century is the
earliest known musician of South India to compose songs called “sankIrtanas” in praise of
Lord Venkateswara, the deity of Seven Hills in Tirumala, India where unbroken worship is being offered
for over 12 centuries.
Annamcharya is believed to be the incarnation of Lord Venkateswara's. nandaka
(Sword).
A rhyming couplet of poems called “Dwipada” written by
Tallapaka Chinnanna, grandson of Annamacharya, enabled us to learn about the Saint
Annamacharya,
his life and works. Annamacharya was born on Vaisakhapoornima in the year Sarwadhari
(May 9, 1408) in Tallapaka, a remote village in Andhra Pradesh, and lived immaculately for
95 years until Phalguna Bahula Dwadasi (12th day after full moon) in the year Dhundhubhi
(February 23, 1503). Annamacharya is believed to be the incarnation of Lord Venkateswara’s
Nandaka or Sword. Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) have consecrated Annamacharya in two
places, one in the Annamacharya Mandiram located in the Annamacharya Project Office premises
at Tiruapati and the other one in Annamacharya temple at Tallapka the birth place of
Annamcharya.
The evidences supporting the fact that Annamacharya is the incarnation of the Lord are found in
Chinnanna’s Dwipada.
It is believed that in the 10th century a big famine broke out in Varanasi and scores of scholars migrated to southern
part of India for earning their livelihoods. Some of them concentrated in a town called
“Nandavaram” in Andhra Pradesh which was ruled by the then king Nanda. These immigrants were
called “Nandavarikas” and Annamacharyas forefathers were the so called Nandavarikas and hence
Annamacharya.
In the Dwipada the story of Annamacharya goes back three generations to his
grandfather Narayanayya. As a boy Narayanayya was not keen in studies and it was customary in
those times for the gurus to subject the students to different kinds of torturous methods to create
concentration on studies. When nothing worked for the young boy, he decided that death would be
better than the life filled with torture, humiliation, and shame. He heard about the venomous cobra
in the snake hole at the temple of Chinthalamma the village Goddess. In an attempt to take his life
away, Narayanayya put his hand in the snake hole at the temple. To his surprise, the village Goddess
appeared before him and advised him not to take his life away since a boy with an element of
Hari or Vishnu would be born in the third generation of Narayanayya.
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Narayana Suri, the son of
Narayanayya, did not have children for a long time. Narayana Suri and his wife Lakkamamba visited
Tirumala Temple and while they were prostrating in front of the Holy Mast (Dhwaja Sthambha) a dazzling
brilliance from the sword of Lord Venkateswara struck them like a lightening. Eventually a boy was born
to them and they named him Annamayya. Annamayya became Annamacharya when the sage Ghana Vishnu at Tirumala
converted him into a Vaishnavaite at the age of 8.
During his long and prolific career, Annamacharya composed and sang
32,000 Sankirtanas,
12 Satakas (sets of hundred verses), Ramayana in the form of Dwipada,SsankIrtana
Lakshanam (Characteristics of sankIrtanas), Sringaara Manjari, and
Venkatachala Mahatmamyam. His works were in Telugu, Sanskrit and a few other languages of
India.
Chinnanna called the 32,000 Sankirtanas as 32,000 Mantras or Sacred Hymns. It was also recorded in
Chinnanna’s Dwipada that Purandara Dasa, who was 70 years younger to
Annamacharya, heard about the miracles of
Annamacharya and visited him. Purandara Dasa paid his respects to Annamacharya by calling him the incarnation
of Lord Venkateswara and his Sankirtanas as Sacred Hymns.
Annamacharya wrote the sankirtanas on palm leaves and later his son Tirumalacharya got them engraved on copper
plates. But for reasons not known, most of these copper plates lay hidden in a rock built cell opposite to
Hundi in the Tirumala temple unnoticed for over 400 years.
In 1922, twenty five
hundred copper plates, comprising of about 14,000 sankIrtanas and a few other works, were found
in a rock built cell, later named as Sankirtana
Bhandagaram, opposite to the Hundi (donation box).
Ever since the discovery of this lost treasure,
Tirumala Tirupati Devastanams (TTD) and
other organizations in India are working hard to promote the music and literature of
Annamacharya. SVASA based in Riverside, honors Annamacharya by organizing both the
jayanti (birth anniversary) and the vardhanti commemorations annually and also organizes other devotional
activities such as
spiritual discourses, devotional music recitals, and other devotional services and thereby
creates/increases spiritual awareness
in the community.
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