Scholar who brought Annamacharya compositions to light to be immortalised

Immortalise scholar who unearthed 27 volumes of Tallapaka Annamacharya's compositions: Gouripeddi Rama Subba Sarma to be honoured with bronze statue at Tirupati's Sri Venkateswara Oriental College campus.

Gouripeddi Rama Subba Sarma, the scholar who brought to light the 27 transcription volumes of Tallapaka Annamacharya’s compositions, is all set to be immortalised in the form of a bronze statue installed at Sri Venkateswara Oriental College campus, Tirupati.

While the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) unearthed the hidden treasure of 14000 out of the 32000 compositions penned by Annamacharya, this scholar shouldered the task of editing the Keertans derived from the copper plates and brought them into a book form, completing 27 volumes.

It was a strange coincidence that Sarma was born at Garnimitta in Chittoor district the same year when the Tallapaka Keertans inscribed on copper plates were brought out of the hidden chambers in Srivari temple in the year 1922.

Sarma was entrusted with the task in 1964 as an associate to Rallapalli Anantha Krishna Sarma, the doyen in the fields of music and literature. He brought out fifteen volumes on his own, six by associating with Rallapalli and five volumes of reprint editions, besides reprinting the history of Tallapaka Annamacharya.

In fact, Gouripeddi authentically derived at the birth year of Annamacharya as 1408 C.E. after extensive research, and the fact was accepted even by the TTD. Endowed with profound knowledge of Rayalaseema vocabulary, Vaishnavite Agama practices, core grammar and the philosophical thoughts of Annamayya, he created abundant prefaces for nineteen volumes of Annamacharya Sankeertans published by the TTD.

Sarma’s ‘Peetika’ (preface) of the 12th volume was also prescribed by SV University in the curriculum for M.A. (Telugu) in 1974. He was also a great stalwart in Avadhanam, the literary art form unique to Telugu.