Music varsity named after Annamacharya to come up at Madhapur

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, MAY 14.A music university named after Tallapaka Annamacharya, the 15th century saint-composer, who rendered about 32,000 keertanas in praise of Lord Venkateswara, will come up at Madhapur in Hyderabad.

According to Mrs Shobha Raju, who popularised these keertanas as court musician of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) and now as founder-president of the Annamacharya Bhavana Vahini, the organisation floated to continue this mission, work is in full swing on the construction of the first phase of buildings for the university on a two-acre site given by the Andhra Pradesh Government and it is expected to be completed by September. Classes will begin around this time after a formal inauguration of the university by the Chief Minister, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu. Different courses are being evolved.

Speaking to The Hindu after having an exclusive website on the saint inaugurated by the Chief Minister in his office this evening, Mrs Shobha Raju said the university was one of the several components being taken up under a Rs 9-crore project launched by the 17-year-old organisation. The other components would include a temple in the name of Annamacharya, an open-air theatre, museum, etc.

The website, www.annamayya.org, which was launched by the Chief Minister amid music lovers, gives exclusive information about the saint and his keertanas having a bearing on moral, spiritual and social values. Visitors to this portal can download the six songs which were put on it for the time being, and can access to three different programmes too. They are "Sankeerthanaushadham", a special therapeutic programme of divine music designed by the organisation which is said to have a soothing impact on diseased people, Sankeerthana Suddhi, another such programme conceived to free the thought process of individuals from contaminated ideas, and thirdly Vyakti Vikasa Sankeerthana, a programme for personality development.

One can also purchase cassettes, CDs, books, etc through the site.

Mrs Shobha Raju said that the organisation would add more songs every week, apart from updating the present information and putting more details on the site. Highlighting the therapeutic value of Sankeerthanaushadham, recalling how patients at the superspecialities hospital of Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) underwent a soothing experience when the songs were rendered for them sometime ago, Mrs Raju said the Director of the hospital, Dr Kakarla Subba Rao, was appreciative of the programme and wanted it as a permanent feature in his institution.

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