Adjoining the porch of Bhashyakara
Sannidhi on its western side, is a small room called Talapakamara or
Sankeertana Bhandara. It was constructed to preserve the collection of sankeertanas
composed by the Talapaka poets (Talapaka Annamacharya, his son Pedda
Tirumalacharya and grandson Chinna Tirumalacharya), who were minstrels
attached to the hill shrine.
Annamacharya,
the greatest of the three poets, came to the hill shrine in 1424 AD and
served the Lord by rendering songs that he had composed, during some
sequences of worship. He was a senior contemporary of Purandara Dasa, and his
songs mark a significant stage in the evolution of South Indian music.
His
songs can be classified into three groups - Adhyatama Sankeertanam, Sringara
Sankeertanam and Srungara Manjari.
The
songs were preserved in the Talapakamara for more than four hundred years,
before they were transferred to the TTD office in Tirupati for the
preparation of transcripts for publication during the days of the last
Mahant, Prayaga Das, at the instance of the TTD epigraphist, Sri Sadhu
Subramania Sastry.
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