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Saint Shri Ogirala Veera Raghava Sarma was a devotee and an "upasaka" of Goddess Gayatri. Under the guidance of his Spiritual Guru - Shri Natha Nanda Teertha (a Brahmachari and profound Vedic Scholar)- Saint GnanAnanda attained "Mantra Siddhi" at the age of 16. He spent his entire life worshipping Goddess Gayatri without seeking material gains. He also established "Gayatri Panchayatana Peetham" at Kovvuru, West Godavari Dt., Andhra Pradesh - India.
He learnt Carnatic Music under Vaggeyakara-ratna BrahmaShri Hari Naga Bhushanam. With Sacred devotion towards Goddess Gayatri and strong Carnatic music knowledge he composed 86 Kritis(songs) in 53 Carnatic Music Ragas. His Compositions started emanating with "Raghava" as the mudra. His Guru Shri Natha Nanda Teertha administered "GnanAnanda Teertha" as his "Deeksha-namam" which appeared as his "Mudra" in his compositions, composed in the later part of his life.
The compositions include 2 Ghana-Raga Kritis in Gaula and Aarabhi akin to the immortal Pancharatnas of Tyagaraja. The song "PadaaraVindamule Gatiyani" composed by the saint is in a new raga "PranavaPriya. This new scale is derived from Simhendra Madhyama. Also the krithi "Paratpari" is set in new raga "GyanAnandaVardhani". In a few songs, he has employed unusual talas like Sankeerna Triputa. All the compositions composed by him are oriented to "Bhakti"(devotion) "Gyana"(knowledge) and "Viragya"(renunciation).
His Compositions have been rendered in many music concerts by various artists, some of them being Shri G N Balasubramaniam, Shri Ariyakudi, Shri Maharajapuram Vishwanatha Iyer, Shri Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar, Smt Bangalore Nagaratnam, Smt DK Pattammal, Shri DK Jairaman, Shri TR Subrahmanyam, Shri M Balamurali Krishna, Smt Jayalakshmi Santanam, Smt Arundhathi Sarkar, Smt Malathi Padmanabha Rao, Smt Vinjamuri Lakshmi, Shri Nethi Shreerama Sharma, Shri O S Thyagarajan, Hyderabad sisters, Smt P Rama, Smt Vimala Krishnamoorty, Smt A Sudha Rani, Smt Baby Gayatri, Smt Nityashri, Smt TR Balamani, Sunadamala Brundam, etc..
The Original compsitions were composed in Telugu and Sanskrit. The books containing Saint's compositions are available in Telugu and the Tamil transliteration.
This site is developed with the interest of spreading the Saint's compositions by his daughter "Smt B Vimala"
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