Vijayawada: President Droupadi Murmu will confer the prestigious Padma Shri awards on noted devotional music exponent Garimella Balakrishna Prasad (posthumously) and eminent Sanskrit scholar Vempaty Kutumba Sastry at the Padma awards ceremony scheduled to be held in New Delhi on Monday.
Both the awardees hail from Andhra Pradesh. They have earned national recognition for their exceptional contributions to the fields of art, literature, and education.
Balakrishna Prasad is one of the most revered names in devotional music. He is being honoured posthumously for his monumental contribution to the propagation of Annamacharya Sankeerthanams. Widely regarded as the most prolific modern composer who tuned Annamacharya’s compositions, he played a transformative role in reviving and popularising the 15th-century saint-poet’s literary and musical legacy.
Born in Andhra Pradesh in 1948, Balakrishna Prasad joined the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams’ Annamacharya Project in 1978. He served the institution in various capacities, including as Asthana Vidwan. Over a six-decade career, he performed more than 6,000 concerts in India and abroad. He composed music for over 1,000 Annamacharya Sankeerthanams.
Balakrishna Prasad has authored more than 10 books, released over 100 music albums, and trained scores of students through the TTD project. In 2009, he led over 1.6 lakh singers during the Lakshagalarchana event at Hyderabad’s Parade Grounds, which entered the Guinness World Records. He passed away on March 9, 2025.
Prof. Vempaty Kutumba Sastry, the other Padma Shri awardee from AP, is internationally recognised for his scholarship in Advaita Vedanta, Sanskrit poetics, and Indian philosophy. Currently serving as Chancellor of Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi Viswa Mahavidyalaya, Kanchipuram, he holds the National Fellowship at the Indian Council of Philosophical Research, New Delhi.
Born in Gudlavalleru in 1950, Prof. Sastry held several key academic leadership positions, including as Vice Chancellor of Sampurnanand Sanskrit University and founding Vice Chancellor of Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, now the Central Sanskrit University. He has authored 15 books and over 50 research papers. He has played a major role in making Sanskrit learning accessible through innovative self-learning programmes adopted across the country.
The recognition of the two distinguished personalities has been widely welcomed by cultural, literary, and academic circles in Andhra Pradesh.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: deccanchronicle.com
