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Sankara Sastry (1900 - 1989): A role model for noble causes
A paradigmatic mould of Gandhian philosophy - simple living and high thinking - and a role model of persevering zeal with dedication, Sankara Sastry remains a household name among lovers of fine arts of the classical idiom, Carnatic music in particular, in and around Visakhapatnam.
The scion of a family of litterateurs and connoisseurs of classical dance and music, Surya Bhagavat Sankara Sastry was born on March 3, 1900, at Kakinada. His philosopher-father, Susarla Gopala Sastry, though an advocate by profession, was a noted scholar in Sanskrit and a close follower of Swami Vivekananda. He edited and published the Sanskrit journal, `Gnanalahari', besides commentaries on the Bhagavadgita and `Sethubandha', scripted by himself.
Sankara Sastry, after schooling at Amalapuram, college education up to B.A. at Vizianagaram and B.T. at Rajahmundry, with simultaneous learning of Carnatic music depending on the possibilities, opted to be a school teacher against the offer of a job in the Revenue Department. He worked all over Guntur district and retired as headmaster in 1958. Though he did not try to be a music performer, thanks to the skilful singer of Carnatic music in his wife Suryakanthamma, he developed immense love for the tradition and passionately studied the lives of the Vaggeyakaras as also the spiritual sublimity embedded in their compositions. By the time he retired, he developed a sensitive feeling of devotional thrall for Thyagaraja and started celebrating the saint-composer's Aradhana and Jayantotsavam simulating even the `unchavritthi' with the photo of the Vaggeyakara fastened to his neck and hanging on his chest. Later, he spent one year serving the Satya Sai Baba at Puttaparthi. During his close movements with the Baba, he expressed his long cherished desire of bringing out some monument in the fond memory of his `God charming', Thyagaraja, preferably in the form of an auditorium for music concerts with a temple in its precincts, its walls inside decorated with portraits of all Vaggeyakaras and saints, running a music school with a library, etc. The Baba was all praise for Sastry's deep rooted devotion for Thyagaraja as he as well shared the impression that the song in Telugu in its simplest idiom by Thyagaraja among the many by others in other languages, stands unique. It is because an aesthetic canvas picturising the transcendental truth intelligibly impregnated in the lyrics with the simultaneous embellishment of ambrosial music instantly emerged out of him. The Baba approved and blessed Sastry for the success of his mission. He toured all over Andhra, and finally to the good fortune of Vizagities he chose the port city for erecting such a monument.
Sankara Sastry's wish was to involve all the citizens of Visakhapatnam irrespective of their financial and other status and lend them the participatory delight in grounding the project. He went on and on, collecting rupee by rupee. Encouraged by the response, he established a trust called Kendriya Sri Thyagaraja Nilaya Sangham in 1968. By 1980s, he himself was astonished to find the collections swelling up to Rs.8 lakhs. Thanks to the timely sanction of two more lakhs by the Government of Andhra Pradesh through the good offices of the then Minister for Cultural Affairs, Bhattam Srirama Murthy, Sastry secured the site measuring about 2200 sq.yds., in two patches (about 1200 first and the rest just adjacent to it later) and planned a simple concert hall with a seating capacity of 500 under a tin-sheet roof. In spite of the funds crunch, he completed the work except the roofing part. Owing to infirmities of old age, he had to bow down to the request of some of the elite under the stewardship of the then Executive Director of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, C.S.N. Raju, to fulfil their long cherished wish to build an air-conditioned auditorium - Kalabharati - in its present form in place of the hall.
Sankara Sastry passed away on the March 27, 1989. Thanks to the all-out efforts of Mr. Raju almost single-handed, Kalabharati was inaugurated by the then Governor, Krishan Kant, on May 10, 1991. In course of time, its art gallery filled with the portrait paintings (most of which were got ready by Sankara Sastry himself), a school of music and dance with a library and finally a Thyagraja Mandiram being consecrated in it in the traditional way, has come into being.
The bronze bust of Sastry erected in the foyer of Kalabharati, stands as a befitting memorial of a role model of selfless service for a noble cause.
A. RAMALINGA SASTRY
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