A four-member experts' team, headed by Deputy Director of the Andhra Pradesh Archaeology Department Gayatri, reached Tirumala on Friday and began the work of cleansing ancient copper plates, (tamra patralu) which have the ‘krithiks' of saint poet Tallapaka Annamacharya engraved on them.
It may be mentioned here that Annamacharya had penned over 32000 kirtanas in praise of Lord Venkateswara. After his demise, they were engaved on the copper plates by his son, Tallapaka Pedda Tirumalaharyulu, and safely preserved at the Sankeerthana bhandagaram inside the temple.
After a lapse of over 400 long years, 14,000 kirthanas were transcripted and work was taken on over 2500 copper plates. Ever since, the TTD had been working hard to preserve the priceless literary work. At present, the TTD has in its possession about 2,698 plates and the process of cleansing is expected to last for five days. Soon after, it plans to put them on display at its SV museum. Meanwhile, a 20-member team headed by A.V Narasimha Murthy from the South India Numismatics Society is expected to come here on November 25 to examine the ancient coins kept in the temple coffers. The coins are supposed to have been deposited in the temple hundi by devotees. According to rough statistics, there is an accumulation of about 500 kg of such coins. They were from periods of various dynasties, including the Ishawaka, Pallava, Satavahana and Vijayanagara. The experts will classify them in accordance to their ages. After the completion of the process, the TTD is contemplating putting them on display at its museum.
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