Annamayya Keertanalu

Sri Tallapaka Annamacharya, popularly known as Annamayya, was born in early 1400’s (1408) and composed thousands of keertans in praise of Lord Venkateshwara (Lord Vishnu also known as Balaji). He was one of the prolific writer and composer of the keertans. It is estimated that he wrote and composed music for over 32,000 keertans. His musical composition style strongly influenced carnatic music.

He came from a background of poets. His wife was a poetess and wrote a book of poems and is considered to be the first Telugu speaking woman to publish. His son and grandson were also famous music composers. Annamayya, who lived to be 94 years old (passed away in 1503), spent most of his life at the Balaji temple in Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh. He used copper plates to engrave his keertans. Only 12,000 of these were discovered concealed in a small room close to where the Balaji idol is. It is believed that the rest of the engravements are lost forever by those who melted them for profit.

Titumala Tirupati Devsthanam (TTD) is actively trying to make all the keertans (12,000 of them) available to the public. Various artistes have taken the keertans and have sang them in classical style. One of the prominent personality who is deeply involved in this is Garimella Balakrishna Prasad. Working with TTD, he already has released over 600 songs, all done in classical style.

Annamayya’s keertans fall into two categories; aadhyaatma (spiritual) and shringaara (romantic). Most of these are in praise of either Balaji or Govinda (Lord Krishna), both different forms of Lord Vishnu. In the next few weeks I will try to bring some of this work to you.

(By the way, there are several pictures of Annamayya available on the Internet. But the ones I found all had a possible copyright warning with them. If anyone of you can, please share a picture here. Thanks.)

In 1999, a popular Telugu movie was made on the life of Annamayya. Though it was not a completely accurate depiction of Annamayya’s life, the movie was responsible to spur the interest of general public, that includes myself, to know more about his work. Before we start on the keertans, I will upload songs from this movie first. There are some great songs in this movie and we will start this thread with these songs first …

Annamayya (1997)

This movie, though historically inaccurate, yet spurred much interest in Annamayya and his writings. The movie, with its music by Keeravani, has some greats music and beautiful songs. Most songs are actually keertans written by Annamayya himself.

I will upload these songs as a precursor to actual keertans by various other singers in back-to-back two posts. All these songs are from a CD.

Here is the first set of songs ...

Concluding Songs of "Annamayya (1997)" ...

Here are the rest of the songs from this beautiful musical album ...

By far, the best rendition of Annamayya keertanalu was by Late Srirangam Gopalaratnam, a highly gifted exponent of Carnatic classical music! Wonder whether anyone has those to upload!!

Venkat

I have eight of them. I will upload them in a short order. Cheers. -S

Sri Tallapaka Annamacharya Keertanalu

This album consists of eight beautiful Annamayya keertans sung by the great lady Srirangam Gopala Ratnam. I will upload them in back-to-back two posts. Here is the first set of keertans ...

Concluding "Sri Tallapaka Annamacharya Keertanalu" ...

Here are the rest of the keertans from this album by the great Srirangam Gopala Ratnam ...

Many many sincere thanks, Swarapriya, for these great uploads of Srirangam Gopalaratnam!

Lord Venkateswara comes before your closed eyes when you hear her rendition especially of "Sakalam Hey Sakhi" and "Namo Narayana Na Vinnapamidigo"!!

There is one thing that I always wanted to know, but was afraid to ask!! Are you a Telugu-speaking person?

Ignore if you do not want to answer.


Venkat

You'e very much welcome, Venkat. I will upload another album of Smt. Ratnam in a short order.

No problem in asking. Yes, Venkat, my mother tongue is Telugu. But like rest of the members of this Forum of ours, music is my language too.

Cheers,
Swarapriya

Annamayya Pada Soundaryamu

Here is another great album of Smt. Ratnam. There are 12 keertans in this. I will upload them in two back-to-back posts. Here is the first set of keertans ...

Concluding Keertans of "Annamayya Pada Soundaryamu" ...

Here are the rest of the keertans of this album by the great Srirangam Gopala Ratnam ...

Thank you, SP.

Shall download the second album of Smt. Srirangam Gopalaratnam at some leisure as such feasts are meant to be savored that way!!

Venkat

M.S. Subbulakshmi Annamacharya Sankeertanlu-1

Here are some of the keertans (part one) by the great lady who redefined cartnatic music with her mastery ...

Swarapriya,

Do you have any 'private songs' of Srirangam Gopalaratnam, such as " Kommalo Koyila Ku Annadi", etc.?

Venkat

I am sorry to disappoint you Venkat, unfortunately I don't have any other songs of hers. May be someone else can come forward and help share these songs. -S

M.S. Subbulakshmi Annamacharya Sankeertanalu-2

I will upload these beautiful keertans in back-to-back two posts. Here is the first set ...

Concluding Keertans of "M.S. Subbulakshmi Annamacharya Sankeertanalu-2" ...

Here is the second and final set of the beautiful keertans ...

Swarapriya,

Great thread. I have good collection of Annammacharya's kritis by various artists. I tried to upload the cd of Sudha raghunathan, but no luck. Having problems again. I will try once more.

lakshmi

ANNAMMACHARYA KRITIS @160
SINGER SUHA RAGHUNATHAN


source cd


Songs
1. sriman narayana – raga bowli - tala adi – 6;11
2. dolayam chala - raga – kamas – tala adi – 4:10
3. vinaro bhagyamu – raga suddha dhanyasi – tala adi – 7:48
4. chakkani – raga padi – tala – chatusra ekam – 4:21
5. mangambudhi – raga dharmavati – tala adi – 7:46
6. alarulu – raga shnakrabharanam – tala adi – 7:12.
7. paramapurusha – raga – raga shanmukhapriya – tala roopaka – 5:43
8. bhavayami gopala – raga yamun kalyani – tala – tala kandachapu – 5:38
9. nanati brathuku – raga revathi – tala adi – 6:17
10. ksheerabdi kanyuku – raga kurinji – tala kandachapu – 5:23

song 1

Lakshmi,

I have been struggling to complete my uploads of Subbulakshmi keertans for last several days. I am not able to do it. It is very frustrating.

My plan is to upload keertans from several artistes, I have quite a few of them, but with the way things are going with the Forum system administration problems, it appears like that it may take a while.

It is great that you will contribute to this thread. Please do as much as you can. I love these keertans and will be looking forward to your uploads.

Thanks & cheers,
Swarapriya

Thanks Swarapriya for your encouragement.You are doing a great service to Carnatic music. I will try a few times to upload the songs. Hopefully, I will be able to do 3 or 4 a day.

Lakshmi

song 2

I tried several times to upload song 3. Just failed. It is very frustrating. I want to share my carnatic music with others. It looks impossible. Hope, the admin. will do something.

lakshmi

Still having problems uploading in this thread.

Lakshmi

song 4

song vande vasudevam - 10:40/128

raga sri

singer Gayathri Venkataraghavan

I am having such a hard time to upload these beautiful songs.

SP.. i have a collection of Annamacharya Keertanas by Shobha Raju, G.Balakrishna prasad, Nitya santoshini and Bala Murali Krishna. but am sure that you will upload them all in due time.
If you dont have any, will be more than happy to upload..please do let me know.

SF, thank you very much for the offer.

I am listing in my post below the albums that I am intending to upload, of course all in due course, if and when our system behaves. As you may have noticed, I couldn't finish uploading Subbulakshmiji's keertans completely. I have been trying to upload those two keertans several times a day, but for no avail. In the following post, I am hoping the system will allow to upload jpeg files, four in all. If you see if I am missing any, please feel free to add.

Thanks & cheers,
Swarapriya

List of Annamayya Keertans That I am Intending to Upload

In the coming months, following are the albums of Annamayya keertans that I am intending to upload. If anyone would like to upload albums that may be missing in the list, please do so. Thank you.

Now for the list of the albums that I have, these are shown in four separate jpeg files in the following attachments ...

SP...am shot ! Cant even imagine to guess the size of your database.
Am from Tirupati yet was never really into collecting Annamayya's keertanas. A pleasure to see your uploads, as always. I am certain that the problems in uploading will go away with time...

Aanjaneya Shruti Sanjeevani

Sri Prasad Gaaru (the picture attached), the singer of these keertans, is a composer and classical singer. He specializes in Annamayya keertans. He has composed music for and sang over 600 Annamayya keertans. There are eight keertans in this album. I will upload these in back-to-back two posts.

Here are the first four keertans ...

Concluding "Aanjaneya Shruti Sanjeevani Keertans" ...

Here are the rest of the keertans from this album ...

Lakshmi,

I was finally able to upload some keertans today. Please complete the album you started uploading. I already have these keertans but since you've started this I would like you to complete them. Also, I have posted the keertans that I have earlier in this thread. If you have some others not mentioned, or even those mentioned, please feel free to upload them.

Thanks & cheers,
Swarapriya

Adivo Choodaro

There are eight keertans in this album. I will upload them in two back-to-back posts. Here are the first four ...

Concluding "Adivo Choodaro" Keertans ...

Here are rest of the keertans from this fine album ...

Here is song 3 and 5

songs 6,7,8,9 and 10

Thanks for sharing these keertans Lakshmi. Appreciate it very much. If you happen to have other keertans, it so happens that this album you've uploaded I already have, please do share.

Cheers,
Swarapriya

Alumela Manga Vaibhavam

This album is by Bala Krishna Prasad Gaaru. There are eight keertans in this. I will upload them in back-to-back two posts. Here are the first four keertans ...

Concluding Keertans of "Alamelu Manga Vaibhavam" ...

Here are the rest of the keertans from this album ...

Annamacharya Kritulu

Here is a beautiful album by Unni Krishnan ...

Annamayya Nitya Sankeertana-1

The singer Nitya Santoshini released a series of eight CDs titled "Annamacharya Nitya Sankeertana". Each one of them has 10 keertans except the first one. It has 11. I have all these CDs that hopefully I will be able to share eventually. Kind of response for this thread has been just dismal. Since my idea of going through all this trouble uploading these is to share, if there is no interest there is no point in continuing it. I will see how this goes in the weeks ahead then I will make a decision.

The first CD has 10 superb keertans. Nitya Santoshini has absolutely fabuolus and sweet voice. She sings these keertans with such skill that you are simply lost in sblimal thoughts. Because of the number and the lengths of these keertans I will upload them in back-to-back two posts. Now for the first keertans ...

Concluding Keertans from "Annamacharya Nitya Sankeertana-1" ...

Here are the rest of the keertans from this beautiful album ...

Dear SP,

Have been visiting this forum after a long gap.
Chanced upon this thread & I, for one, was thrilled.
Having savoured only M.S.Subbalakshmi's cassette, the number of songs that were available, was breath taking.

Please keep up the good work.

I can empathise with your anguish. The principal reason, in my opinion, is the language.
Unlike spiritual music in Hindi, essentially bhajans, this is a different genre and, more so, in a different language.
These more akin to 'abhangs' in Marathi. 'Abhangs' are poetic offerings by different composers, principal among them being Tukaram, to Vittal at Pandarpur, Maharashtra; another composer who has revered Vittal in the most serene poetry is the famous Carnatic composer, Purandhara Dasa.

Since these are classical compositions, they are, certainly, an acquired taste.

Incidentally, the response to Bhajans section in this forum has not exactly set it on fire. You are on more difficult ground, with more adverse factors.

Do no feel disheartened. Having started, do complete it. Abandoning it midway, would be un-SP like.


Best wishes,
Suresh

P.S. If the cassettes/cds that you are uploading have details of the raga in which it has been sung, please mention them, if it is not a problem.
It would be most helpful.

Incidentally, Nitya's voice was, indeed very sweet, totally suited to this genre. Thanks for introducing to me a very talented singer.

Best Regards, Suresh

SP..i can understand your feelings. But, as Suresh said, please dont abandon this thread midways...

Suresh,

Thanks a lot to hear from you in a long time. Your encouragement is very reassuring.

Unfortunately, my dear Suresh, not all the keertans I have the informations about the ragas that I can share. I have an aptitude for good music, classical or otherwise. I am in general a casual listener but occasionally I do tread into stuff like this because listening to keertans like these gives me that tranquility which stills all of my worldly worries and eases my mind. But to guess the raga of a particular keertan is beyond my know how. May be some of our learned members can throw light on these.

Cheers,
Swarapriya

Got it. Thank you SF. This thread is just warming up. Midway is still a ways to go. Anyway, frustration aside, it is the encouragement like this that keeps me moving forward. Cheers. -S

[quote name='swarapriya' date='Mar 14 2010, 04:49 AM' post='653079']
[quote name='simplefable' post='653074' date='Mar 13 2010, 10:11 PM']

Got it. Thank you SF. This thread is just warming up. Midway is still a ways to go. Anyway, frustration aside, it is the encouragement like this that keeps me moving forward. Cheers. -S
[/quote]

Dear SP,

That's the spirit.
Best wishes,
Suresh

Annamayya Geeta Mala

This album has 10 keertans, five by Vani Jairam and five by G. Anand. Vani with her incredible credentials is an established and venerable singer. But these keertans are the first songs I have heard of Anandji. I don't know anything about this singer. May be someone can help by filling in some details about him.

The following first post has Jairam's five keertans ...