01The boy who climbed the hill
Born at Tallapaka, in today’s Annamayya district of Andhra Pradesh, he left home as a boy and climbed the Tirumala hills on foot. The family account says he fainted on the way, and Alamelumanga (Padmavati) herself revived him; his first verses were in her praise. He took Vaishnava diksha and spent his long life singing at Tirumala and at temples across the Telugu country. His songs are padams, short pieces with a refrain, in plain Telugu and some Sanskrit.
02The copper plates
His son Peda Tirumalacharya and grandson Chinna Tirumalacharya had the songs engraved on copper plates and stored in a small room in the Tirumala temple, later called the Sankirtana Bhandaram. They lay there unknown until the 20th century, when the plates were found and the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams began to publish them. Today “Brahmam okkate”, “Adivo alladivo” and “Muddugare Yashoda” are sung in every Carnatic concert hall, and Annamacharya is called the Pada-kavita Pitamaha, grandfather of the padam.
