Hyderabad resident Venkat Garikapati is not your usual banker. When he isn’t busy juggling numbers, Garikapati is deconstructing the works of Annamacharya, a 15th-century saint poet, who has penned 32,000 sankeertanas, hailing Lord Venkateshwara’s glory and the way to lead life. Garikapati, a well-versed scholar of the saint’s works, released another of Annamacharya’s gems as a book, Annamayya Tatva Geetha, last month in Hyderabad. The book contains 32 rare Vairagya Sankeertanas (philosophy on life and death as verses).
In the last 30 years, Garikapati has penned nearly a dozen books on Annamacharya’s (also known as Annamayya) Sankeertanas. He has so far picked 1,000 lyrical gems of the revered saint and made it more accessible to people by explaining the meaning of the composition. “Annamayya’s songs are not just melodious, but also contain life’s truths. My commentaries on his works are small attempts to understand his profound philosophy,” says Garikapati, Deputy General Manager at Stressed Assets Branch, State Bank of India. Earlier, he was roped in as one of the experts to comment on the compositions of the poet in a 52-episode show Annamayya Paataku Pattabhishekam for a Telugu devotional channel run by the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams Trust Board.
So how did a banker develop interest on a philosopher’s renderings? “Ever since I was a child, I have listened, sung and read Annamayya. My love for him qualifies me to research his work. I spend at least three hours every day poring over Annamayya’s lyrics, manuscripts, other works to understand the analogies and metaphors the poet has used,” he explains. Garikapati is also often called Vyakhyana Visharad (a title given to expert literary and music commentators).
Composing his poetry isn’t an easy task. Annamayya hailed from Rayalaseema, a region in the Telugu states with a distinct dialect. Garikapati digs deep to look into the etymological references to decipher many of the words used by the poet. “For instance, ‘manikithapadu’ is a rare word that he has used in his verses. It means weeping incessantly. Similarly, ‘rapamu’ means intimacy and affection. It is necessary to study his previous works and local maandalikalu (idioms and phrases) to get this right,” he says. This is Garikapati’s 13th published work on the saint. The book release also had a vocal concert, interspersed with rich commentary, which helped devotees relish the meanings alongside Carnatic music.
Garikapati’s attempt is to create awareness around Annamayya’s songs and how they are relevant even today. “In these desperate times, we should remember his words that we need nothing more than three square meals when alive and a six-foot grave when we die,” he concludes.