A long but fruitful search
RANEE KUMAR
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Sankara Rao's research has helped unearth unknown Annamacharya songs.
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RESEARCH ROUTE Sankara Rao on a mission.
Fuelled by a missionary zeal to bring to light the great saint-musicians of Andhra Pradesh, a young researcher has taken it upon himself to take the lesser-known path with courage and conviction. How else can a biochemist be associated with musicology?
"It is my sheer interest in Telugu literature while during my graduation that inspired me to chase, what seemed, the moon at that point of time. I neither have a musical background nor do I hail from such a family. I was drawn to the songs of Annamacharya during my college days when I was pursuing M.Sc. Biochemistry. I secured a job in Shantha Biotechnics, but my heart was yearning to delve into the life and verses of Tallapaka Annamayya and bring many unknown facts to the fore," the unassuming G.B. Sankara Rao says.
Though quite a few stalwarts like the late Veturi Prabhakara Sastry, Rallapalli Anantakrishna Sarma had retrieved the 15th century saint-poet Annamacharya's works partially, four centuries later, there still remains a vast volume that has been left undeciphered though the bulk of the entire works seems to have been lost. Nine years of gruelling research has yielded results that came like mid-summer shower on Sankara Rao's parched heart.
"I spent months at the Tanjore library and the Oriental Research Institute, Tirupati. I was able to find some songs of the famed composer and a rare manuscript belonging to Annamayya's descendent Tallapaka Venkata Seshacharyulu, who had transferred the palm leaf verses on to paper for better upkeep during the `40s. Though some scholars had referred to this manuscript it remained undiscovered for over five-and-half decades. I was able to unearth 288 songs from this manuscript of which 180 are not known to the world till now. At least another 118 had their duplicates on copper plates with minor changes. Some of the copper plates on which Annamayya's verses were etched by his immediate descendents were melted for the metal worth by later descendents and that's how we lost quite a number of the 32,000 songs he had composed," he says.
Prasar Bharati released two CDs of these new songs of Annamayya while the research papers were published in important magazines.
Now, a few songs have been lent to Dr. Vempati Chinna Satyam to be tuned for dance for the coming Annamayya birth anniversary. In the course of his research, Sankara Rao realised that Annamacharya was not just a saint but a social reformer in his own way. The colloquial language of his verses was specifically meant for the common man.
Like Vemanna, there are aphorisms within the songs that abound in home truths in Annamayya's songs which establish him as bhava yogi. Without seeking any financial help, this young scientific researcher is highly indebted to Vara Prasada Reddy, chairman of Shantha Biotechnics.
"I too have a social purpose to my research: to place our great poets/litterateurs on the pedestal they ought to occupy in realm of art," he signs off with a twinkle in his eye.
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