04-30-2006, 08:00 AM
From Deccan Chronicle, 29 April 2006
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->A singer discovers reformer in saint
âEmperor and servant fall asleep in the same way; Brahmin and Chandala end up in the same graveyardâ
â Annamacharya
Hyderabad: Much before great reformist movements started in India, Tallapaka Annamacharya, a saint-composer of the 15th century, was ridiculing the caste and class divides around him. Not much was known about this South Indian composer, till 14,000 of his compositions inscribed on 2,500 copper plates were retrieved from a cave at the Lord Venkateswara Swamy temple in Tirumala in 1922.
Since then, the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) and other cultural organisations have been striving to promote the compositions of Annamacharya.
It is believed that Annamacharya composed and sang 32,000 sankeertanas and 12 satakas (sets of hundred verses). The TTD has been promoting research on the composerâs works for the last two decades through its Annamacharya Project. Scholars have classified the compositions of Annamayya primarily into Adhyaatama (philosophical) and Sringaara (erotic) Sankeerthanas. Works belonging to these two categories are the favourites of Carnatic classical singers too.
It needed 28-year old Kondaveeti Jyothirmaye Chowdary to highlight the âsocial elementâ of Annamayya sankeerthanas. âIt is not that I have discovered something new,â said Jyothirmaye. âThe classical singers have been stressing the element of devotion. <b>I only tried to understand the social philosophy of his works.â Once she started focusing on that in real earnest, Jyothirmaye realised that Annamayyaâs visions had socialist, communist, humanist and feminist dimensions. Take for instance, his keerthana, âBahu jeeva himsa parulaina variki, iha paramulu daivami-chchena...â (Can God grant salvation to those who resort to violence?). This reflected his deep humanism, according to Jyothirmaye.</b>
Similarly, he sung, âAppuleni samsara maina pate chaalu; Tappuleni Jeethamokka paramainaa chalu...â Roughly translated, this means that one should live within oneâs means and should not resort to corruption. In another hymn, he ridicules men for opposing rule by women.
<b>âAnd remember, Annamacharya advocated removal of inequalities nearly 400 years before the trinity of Carnatic music â Thyagaraju, Muthuswami Deekshitar and Shayama Sastry â spread the Bhakti philosophy,â said Jyothirmaye. </b>Jyothirmaye, who hails from Angaluru village near Gudivada in Krishna district, started singing from the age of seven. <b>Ironically, this devotee of Annamacharya is the great-grand daughter of well-known atheist writer Tripuraneni Ramaswamy Chowdary.
Though hailing from the family of atheists, she had deep devotion and faith in God from childhood. </b>When her father, a civil engineer in a private firm, moved to Tirupati along with his family, Jyothirmaye joined the Music and Dance College at Tirupati. âFor the sake of music, I gave up an MBBS seat,â she said. âI wanted to sing.â
It was fate which guided her to the Annamayya project of TTD. She started developing deep interest in Annamayaâs philosophy and it has become the mainstay of her life. It goes to her credit that Jyothirmaye found something unique in his songs, something that could be communicated even to those people who are not faithful temple-goers.
<b>âI realised that the real essence of Annamayya songs was not to merely worship God, but to do service to the fellow human beings,â she said. </b>She did not merely sing those songs. She also took them to heart and set up the Annamayya Kala Peetam in Hyderabad and later, developed it into Kondaveeti Jyothirmaye International Trust.
The trust is undertaking vocational training for the blind, the physically and mentally challenged, juvenile delinquents, women prisoners and destitutes. She found her name in the Limca Book of Records for publishing all the great sacred books of the world in Braille for visually impaired people.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The whole bhakti movement was about creating an eglatarian society.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->A singer discovers reformer in saint
âEmperor and servant fall asleep in the same way; Brahmin and Chandala end up in the same graveyardâ
â Annamacharya
Hyderabad: Much before great reformist movements started in India, Tallapaka Annamacharya, a saint-composer of the 15th century, was ridiculing the caste and class divides around him. Not much was known about this South Indian composer, till 14,000 of his compositions inscribed on 2,500 copper plates were retrieved from a cave at the Lord Venkateswara Swamy temple in Tirumala in 1922.
Since then, the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) and other cultural organisations have been striving to promote the compositions of Annamacharya.
It is believed that Annamacharya composed and sang 32,000 sankeertanas and 12 satakas (sets of hundred verses). The TTD has been promoting research on the composerâs works for the last two decades through its Annamacharya Project. Scholars have classified the compositions of Annamayya primarily into Adhyaatama (philosophical) and Sringaara (erotic) Sankeerthanas. Works belonging to these two categories are the favourites of Carnatic classical singers too.
It needed 28-year old Kondaveeti Jyothirmaye Chowdary to highlight the âsocial elementâ of Annamayya sankeerthanas. âIt is not that I have discovered something new,â said Jyothirmaye. âThe classical singers have been stressing the element of devotion. <b>I only tried to understand the social philosophy of his works.â Once she started focusing on that in real earnest, Jyothirmaye realised that Annamayyaâs visions had socialist, communist, humanist and feminist dimensions. Take for instance, his keerthana, âBahu jeeva himsa parulaina variki, iha paramulu daivami-chchena...â (Can God grant salvation to those who resort to violence?). This reflected his deep humanism, according to Jyothirmaye.</b>
Similarly, he sung, âAppuleni samsara maina pate chaalu; Tappuleni Jeethamokka paramainaa chalu...â Roughly translated, this means that one should live within oneâs means and should not resort to corruption. In another hymn, he ridicules men for opposing rule by women.
<b>âAnd remember, Annamacharya advocated removal of inequalities nearly 400 years before the trinity of Carnatic music â Thyagaraju, Muthuswami Deekshitar and Shayama Sastry â spread the Bhakti philosophy,â said Jyothirmaye. </b>Jyothirmaye, who hails from Angaluru village near Gudivada in Krishna district, started singing from the age of seven. <b>Ironically, this devotee of Annamacharya is the great-grand daughter of well-known atheist writer Tripuraneni Ramaswamy Chowdary.
Though hailing from the family of atheists, she had deep devotion and faith in God from childhood. </b>When her father, a civil engineer in a private firm, moved to Tirupati along with his family, Jyothirmaye joined the Music and Dance College at Tirupati. âFor the sake of music, I gave up an MBBS seat,â she said. âI wanted to sing.â
It was fate which guided her to the Annamayya project of TTD. She started developing deep interest in Annamayaâs philosophy and it has become the mainstay of her life. It goes to her credit that Jyothirmaye found something unique in his songs, something that could be communicated even to those people who are not faithful temple-goers.
<b>âI realised that the real essence of Annamayya songs was not to merely worship God, but to do service to the fellow human beings,â she said. </b>She did not merely sing those songs. She also took them to heart and set up the Annamayya Kala Peetam in Hyderabad and later, developed it into Kondaveeti Jyothirmaye International Trust.
The trust is undertaking vocational training for the blind, the physically and mentally challenged, juvenile delinquents, women prisoners and destitutes. She found her name in the Limca Book of Records for publishing all the great sacred books of the world in Braille for visually impaired people.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The whole bhakti movement was about creating an eglatarian society.