Tirumala is a hill town in Chittoor district. The town is home to Sri Venkateswara temple, dedicated to the Lord Venkateswara Swamy and a major pilgrimage center for Hindus. Tirumala is situated 26 kilometres north of Tirupati and 86 kilometres north-east of Chittoor. Tirumala is the combination of two words: Tiru meaning 'holy' or 'sacred' and mala meaning 'hill' in Tamil, translating to holy mountain.
Sri Tallapaka Annamacharya or Annamayya (May 9, 1408 - February 23, 1503) was the official songmaster of the Tirumala Venkateswara Temple and a Telugu composer who composed thousands of keertana songs many of which were in praise of Lord Sri Venkateswara Swami. The musical form of the keertana songs that he composed have strongly influenced the structure of Carnatic music compositions which are still popular among Carnatic music concert artists. Annamacharya was born in Tallapakaa remote village in kadapa district. He has composed about 32,000 sankeerthanas on lord venkateshwara out of which only 12,000 are available today. The cancellation depicts