ANNAMACHARYA

Annamacharya has made remarkable contribution to carnatic music through his sankeertanas. He was born in 1424 at Talapakka, a village in Cuddapa District. His parents were Narayana Suri and Akkamamba. Annamayya was born with devotion to Sri Venkateswara. Even as a child he will not eat unless the food was given to him as the Prasada of Sri Venkateswara. He was initiated into Sri Vaishnava faith and became a disciple of the great Vaishnava Saint Satagopayali of Ahobilam and studied all the sanskrit texts on Vaishnavite Philosophy.

Annamayya had a vision of Sri Venkateswara when he was sixteen and since then all through his life he composed sankeentanas and padakavita-s on Sri Venkateswara totalling to thirty two thousands. They were engraved in copper plates and preserved to posterity by the efforts of his son Pedda Thirumalacharya. This treasure was rediscovered at the Sri Venkatachalapathi temple of Tirupathi and brought to light in the 1930s. With his profound scholarship in sacred literature and music, he is said to have composed twelve works among which only five are available. They are the Adhyathma Sankeertanulu, Srungara Sankeertanulu, Srungara Manjari Sankeertana, Lakshana in sanskrit and a Sataka on Alamelumanga. The Telugu version of Sankeertana lakshana is the one which is available now. Srungara Manjari deals with the expression of mystic love towards Tirupahti Sri Venkateswara.

The Srungara Sankeeratanulu and Adhyathma Sankeertanulu are collections of songs. Of these the Adhyathma Sankeeranulu are in pious vein while Srungara Sankeertanulu sing the praise of the Lord conceived of as the divine lover.

Srungara Sankeertanulu outnumber the Adhyathma keertanas by several thousands. None of the songs have come down in their original tunes. The sankeertanas have a common structural pattern. Each song comprises of a pallavi (very occasionally Anupallavi) and usually there metrically and musically identical four line charanas.

The enunciation of a central idea in the pallavi and developing the idea in a series of enriching analogies or illustrations etc in the charanas is the characteristic format of the sankeertanas of Annamacharya.

A few songs sung in the Bhajana tradition today are regarded as works of Annamacharya which have come down in their original tunes. The copper plate inscriptions of songs that are available today give only the name of the raga and the text of the song and there is no mention of Tala. The songs are in both Telugu and Sanskrit languages. The namavalis with the syllable “namo namo” are in the sankertanas of Annamacharya in pallavi and charanas. One such composition is “Narayana te namo namo”

He has composed a sataka on Sri Alamelumanga and one of the Sankeertanas on Sri Alamelumanga is beginning with the pallavi “Alamelumanga nee abhinava roopamu”.

It is the Adhyathma Sankeertana forms of Annamacharya which crystallized into Kirtana, Kriti, of the great Trinities – Thyagaraja, Muthusami Dhikshitar and Syama Sasthri and his Pada Kavita in Srungara Keertanas stand as the forerunner for the Padas of Kshetrayya. It is therefore no exaggeration to hail Annamacharya as path maker in the field of Carnatic music – Pada Kavita margaarsi and padakavita Pitamaha. Annamacharya wrote a treatise on the art of composing Keertanas in Sanskrit viz. Sankeertana lakshana but the Sanskrit work is not available. The Telugu version of this treatise has come down to us because of his grandson Chinna Thirumalayya (Refer the Minor works, T T Devasthanam Talapakkam Telugu works, Volume I, Tirupathi 1933).

Annamacharya’s “Desi Suladi” composition is a Raga Tala-malika with a Vachana/Vakya and set to seven Suladi talas – Dhruva Malya, Rupaka, Jampa, Tiriputa, Ata and Eka with seven Ragas Malavigouta, Ramakriya, Varali, Bouli, Padi, Nata and Sri respectively. Suladi is a Desya word for Gitam and are traced to Kannada Music literature. Purandaradasa was his contemporary and has composed many Suladi-s. Annamacharya’s Desi Suladi is in Telugu language and with an insertion of Vachana which gives a separate identity to his Suladi and aptly named as Desi Suladi stressing the Regional Culture. He is the only composer who has composed a Suladi in Telugu.

The Ragas adopted by Annamacharya are those mentioned by Vidyaranya in his musical treatise sangeetha sara who lived before Annamacharya. Vidyaranya is the first to introduce the Mela-Janya system and deals with 15 melas and 50 ragas which are all found in the Sankeertanas of Annamachrya. Besided these ragas, Annamacharya introduced a few more ragas such as 1. Abali, 2. Ahirinata, 3. Amarasindhu, 4. Bhallari, 5. Desalam, 6. Gummakamboji, 7. Kokila panchamam 8. Konda Malahari, 9. Mangala Bauli, 10. Mukkaripantu, 11. Pratapanata, 12. Rayagoula, 13. Sokavarali, 14. Sindhukriya, 15. Gitanata, 16. Telugu Kamboji, 17. Kousi, 18. Dravida Bhairavi, 19. Dravidagurjari and 20. Sourashtragurjari. These ragas find a place in Ramamathya’s musical treatise Swaramelakalanidhi written in 1550 A.D. Unfortunately the identity of these ragas are not known today.

Annamacharya has contributed also in the realm of Desikavita – songs in tune based ragas, The gobbillo song in the melody of yadukula kambodi runs as “Kolani dopariki” .

The text of these songs are in Telegu and devotional in content. These songs of Annamacharya seem to have influenced Saint Thyagarya to compose Uthsava Sampradaya Keertanas. Annamacharya was not only a scholar and an ardent devotee of Sri Venkateswara of Tirupathi, but a great music composer and margadarsi for the musical forms Kirtana, Kriti and Pada. Annamacharyha is ever singing in the Tirumala temple.

Dr.S.A.K.Durga