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The
scene is laid in the Durbar hall of Saluva Narasingaraja, the king
of Penugonda, who rose to power by the blessings and guidance of
Annamacharya, the world-renowned Sangeethacharya of Andhra Pradesh.
The principal character, of course, is Annamacharya, and the villain
of the piece is that presumptuous King Saluva Narasingaraya. The
time of action took place some time in fourteen eighties.
Annamacharya
was a varaprasadi born to Lakkamamba and Narayana Suri couple after
years of rigorous meditation and innumerable vratas. He was the
Nandaka-sword aspect of Srimannarayana born to rejunevate the
drooping religious instincts in the fifteenth century due to Muslim
domination over the whole of Bharat, in a way. By his gifted voice
and boon of composing devotional songs in praise of
Venkatachalapathi of the Seven Hills, he became an illustrious
Vaggeyakara and was honoured with the title of Padakavithapitamaha
the originator and grand father of lyrical poetry. He toured widely
and later settled down at Tirumala composing devotional songs, one
each day and authored 32000 songs, a record never reached by any in
any language so far and anywhere in the world, for that matter.
Although most of his works - Satakas, Kavyas, in addition to songs
are lost, only some 12000 sankirthanas are available, and the T.T.D.,
Tirupathi has undertaken the noblest task of preserving and printing
them in several volumes through a special department manned by
eminent savants working arduously since nineteen forties. And is
successfully broadcasting the glory of his compositions through
making cassettes for public benefit.
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