A new site, built from published sources. Spotted a mistake? Please tell us
Telugu Historyతెలుగు చరిత్ర

Tallapaka Annamacharya

Telugu composer of devotional songs (sankirtanas) to the god Venkatesvara of Tirupati, the first of the Tallapaka family of temple poets. The Tirupati temple dated him 1408–1503 when it printed his songs in 1941. Temple records of 1530–1558, studied by S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, show his son Tirumalai Aiyangar as the temple's appointed singer, and his grandson setting up his image as a teacher.

Tallapaka Annamacharya was a composer of Telugu devotional songs in praise of the god Venkatesvara at Tirupati.1 His songs are called sankirtanas (devotional songs).1 The Tirupati temple committee dated him 1408–1503 when it printed his songs in 1941.1 He matters to historians because his family became the temple’s singers, and the temple’s own records follow them for three generations.234

What the sources tell us

The sources used here are thin on Annamacharya’s own life. They say nothing about his birthplace, his teacher or his patrons. What they give is a set of temple records about his son and grandsons, studied by the historian S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar in his History of Tirupati (1941).2 These records begin about thirty years after the date the temple gives for Annamacharya’s death.21

Two names appear in them. A record of 1530 calls the temple singer Tirumalai Aiyangar “son of Annamaiyangar”.2 A record of 1540 says that Tirumalai Aiyangar’s son set up an image of his own teacher, Annamacharya.35 Krishnaswami Aiyangar lists the two names separately in his index.6 None of the sources used here says in so many words that they are the same man.

The songs in print

By 1941 the temple committee, the Tirumalai-Tirupati Devasthanams, was printing a “Tallapakkam Series” of the family’s Telugu poems.1 Its list of books gives:1

  • a volume of eleven shorter works by Tallapakkam poets of the 15th and 16th centuries
  • Adhyatma Sankirtanalu (songs of the spirit), 406 songs by “Tallapakkam Annamacharyulu”, whom it dates 1408–1503
  • Sringara Sankirtanalu (songs of love), about 600 more of his songs
  • the Ashtamahishi Kalyanamu (the marriages of Krishna’s eight queens), by Tallapakkam Tiruvengalanatha1

The list divides the songs into songs of the spirit and songs of love.1 It gives no source for the dates 1408–1503.1

His son, the temple singer

Krishnaswami Aiyangar describes an agreement of 31 October 1530 with Tallapakkam Tirumalai Aiyangar.2 It calls him the temple’s singer by special appointment.2 It mentions four villages given for services, and a sankirtana bhandara, a treasury of the songs “composed by this poet”.2 The passage does not name Annamacharya.2

Krishnaswami Aiyangar added that copper plates holding these songs were still kept in a room in the temple, carefully guarded, when he wrote.2 The services named in the agreement include one on the birthday of the Vijayanagara king Achyutaraya.2

Later records show the son’s wealth and standing:78910

  • in 1532 he gave for temple services villages that Achyutaraya had granted him
  • he sang before the god, and repaired a tank, built a pavilion in it and walled a temple, for the merit of his father
  • in 1535 a record in Tamil verse, with a Telugu version, says that he and his sons sang songs before the god
  • in 1541 he paid for a service in front of the treasury of songs78910

A record of 1545 provides for two people at the end of the singing of the songs “composed by him”.11

His grandsons

A record of 22 March 1540 comes from the temple at Mangapuram, near Chandragiri.3 It calls the elder Tirumalai Aiyangar a devoted follower of the Vaishnava teacher Vedanta Desika.3 It says that his son, Chinna Tirumalai Aiyangar, built or renewed the temple there.3 Chinna Tirumalai Aiyangar set up images of the god and of the teachers of their tradition.35 Among them was his own teacher, Annamacharya.35

In 1546 another son of Tirumalai Aiyangar, named Tiruvengadanathan, made a large gift.12 Krishnaswami Aiyangar says he wrote the Telugu Ashtamahishi Kalyanamu.1213 The temple’s 1941 list gives the author of that poem as “Tallapakkam Tiruvengalanatha (Chinna Tirumalayyangar)”, and dates him 1498–1561.1 A record of 1558 names another son, Tiruvenathan.4

In 1898 G. R. Subramiah Pantulu, writing on the poets of Krishnadeva Raya’s time, also mentioned the family.14 He cited a “History of Kondavidu” for the statement that “Tallapaka Chinnana”, the writer of the Ashtamahishi Kalyanamu, lived in that period.14

Where the sources disagree

The sources differ on names more than on facts.

  • Annamaiyangar and Annamacharya. The 1530 record names the singer’s father as Annamaiyangar.2 The 1540 record names the grandson’s teacher as Annamacharya.35 The temple’s 1941 books credit the songs to “Tallapakkam Annamacharyulu”.1 Krishnaswami Aiyangar’s index keeps the first two names apart.6
  • The author of the Ashtamahishi Kalyanamu. Krishnaswami Aiyangar names him Tiruvengadanathan.1213 The temple’s list calls him Tiruvengalanatha, also known as Chinna Tirumalayyangar.1 Subramiah Pantulu calls him “Tallapaka Chinnana”.14

See also Music & dance and the Tirumala temple.

Footnotes

  1. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, History of Tirupati, Vol. II (1941), list of T. T. Devasthanams publications, PDF pp. 607–608 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12

  2. S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, A History of Tirupati, Vol. II (1941), p. 216, record No. 6 of 1530 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11

  3. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, History of Tirupati, Vol. II (1941), p. 237, record No. 141 of 1540 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  4. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, History of Tirupati, Vol. II (1941), p. 288, record of 1558 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

  5. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, History of Tirupati, Vol. II (1941), p. 238 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  6. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, History of Tirupati, Vol. II (1941), index, PDF p. 589 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

  7. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, History of Tirupati, Vol. II (1941), p. 217, record No. 14 of 1532 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

  8. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, History of Tirupati, Vol. II (1941), p. 218, record No. 20 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

  9. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, History of Tirupati, Vol. II (1941), p. 222, records Nos. 40–41 of 1535 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

  10. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, History of Tirupati, Vol. II (1941), p. 239, record No. 155 of 1541 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

  11. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, History of Tirupati, Vol. II (1941), p. 266, record No. 47 of 1545 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

  12. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, History of Tirupati, Vol. II (1941), p. 274, record No. 71 of 1546 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  13. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, History of Tirupati, Vol. II (1941), p. 275 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

  14. G. R. Subramiah Pantulu, “Discursive Remarks on the Augustan Age of Telugu Literature”, Indian Antiquary XXVII (1898), p. 303 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

References

Sources (2)
  1. S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, A History of Tirupati, Vol. II (Sri Venkateswara Oriental Institute Series) (opens in a new tab), Tirumalai-Tirupati Devasthanam Committee, Madras, 1941, pp. 216–218, 222, 237–239, 266, 274–275, 288; publications list, PDF pp. 607–608. Cite-only; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]
  2. Indian Antiquary, The Indian Antiquary, Vol. XXVII (1898) (opens in a new tab), Education Society's Press, Byculla, Bombay, 1898, pp. 303. G. R. Subramiah Pantulu, 'Discursive Remarks on the Augustan Age of Telugu Literature'. [Public domain]

Spotted an error on this page? Tell us

Last updated: