Bhumana pays rich tributes to epigraphist Shastri

Tirupati: Legendary epigraphist Sadhu Subramanya Shastri who brought to light the historical facts of 2000-year-old famed Tirumala temple remains a proud possession of 100 crore Hindus and his contribution to spread the glory of Lord Venkateswara world over would be remembered forever, said

city MLA Bhumana Karunakar Reddy while paying rich tributes to Shastri on his 133rd Jayanthi celebration which was held here on Saturday.

The Tirupati MLA said that it was his finding based on the inscriptions on the temple walls (prakarams) of Tirumala Venkateswara Swamy temple revealed that it was Pallava (dynasty) queen Samavai who donated the Bhoga Srinivasa idol which was daily worshipped at Tirumala shrine along with Moola Virat, heralding the unearthing of hitherto unknown facts about the ancient Tirumala temple.

Though a small-time employee of TTD , his passion for epigraphy to unearth Tirumala and other TTD temple history based on the thousands of inscriptions of various langauges in the temples saw him bringing to light the complete history of Tirumala temple, Reddy said observing that, "It was my good fortune that I was acquainted with such a great personality during school days."

Reminding that that it was he as TTD Chairman had undertaken the installations of the statues of eminent persons like Sadhu Subramanya Shastri, Veturi Prabhakar Shastri and Rallapalli Anantakrishna Sharma in the pilgrim city to motivate people to take lessons from their life

stories and remember them for long, he said and added that every devotee of Sri Venkateswara should read the compilation of inscriptions by Shastri. Marking the occasion, the MLA released the book 'Saraswata Samvikshanam' brought out by the TTD.

Earlier, Reddy along with TTD board member P Ashok, Shastri's daughter Girija, grandson and Kadapa additional district sessions judge CS Murthy, garlanded the statue of Sadhu Subramanya Shastri in front of SVETA Bhavan.

Among others, SVETA Director Prashanti, epigraphist Krishna Reddy, TTD chief audit officer Sesha Shailendra, DEO Bhaskar Reddy, Retd director general of Doordarshan Ananta Padmanabha Rao, Prof Chandramouli of Puducherry University, SV Museum OSD Krishna Reddy and SV Oriental College Prof Venkateshwarlu were present.