| Garimella Satyanarayana | |
|---|---|
| Born | July 14, 1893 , Srikakulam district, India |
| Died | December 18, 1952 |
| Occupations | Singer and composer |
Garimella Satyanarayana (Telugu: గరిమెళ్ళ సత్యనారాయణ) (1893 – December 18, 1952) was a Poet and Freedom Fighter of Andhra Pradesh, India.
Satyanarayana Garimella was a great nationalist who influenced and mobilized the Andhra people against the British with his patriotic songs and writings for which he was jailed several times by the British government.
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He was born in a poor Brahmin family to Venkatanarasimham and Suramma. He was born in Gonepadu village in Narasannapeta taluq of Srikakulam district in 1892.
Garimella Satyanarayana is identified by his famous song - “mAkoddI tella doratanamu” (We don’t need this white rule). He himself used to sing this song. This particular song was a popular in the households of Andhra Pradesh during the Indian independence movement.
He was helped to study by a kind lawyer, called Kannepalli Narasimha Rao and finished graduation (BA). He worked as a clerk in collector's office of Ganjam district and as a teacher at a high school in Vijayanagaram. He gave up his studies by the call of Mahatma Gandhi to participate in civil disobedience movement. During this time, he wrote his famous song Maakoddee Telladoratanamu for which he was jailed in 1922 for one year. After the release from Jail, he continued his participation in the movement by singing songs in villages. For this he was sentenced for two and half years rigorous imprisonment. His entire family (wife, father and grandfather) died when he was in jail.
He died in a destitute state on December 18, 1952 after spending several years in poverty.
Prof. Challa Radhakrishnamurthy of the Madurai Kamaraj University Telugu Department did outstanding research on Garimella's literary works and ultimately published a book called "garimeLLa sAhityam" (garimeLLa's literary works).
Smt. B. Krushnakumari did an MPhil research with an emphasis on the critical analysis of Garimella's literary works. She obtained her degree in 1990. During the course of her research, Smt. Krushnakumari collected various works of Garimella after visiting several libraries.
In 1992, his birth centenary was celebrated in Andhra Pradesh and on this occasion the collection of his songs as "garimeLLa gEyAlu" was published by the Visalandhra Publishers. The book written by Smt. B. Krushnakumari (garimeLLa vyAsAvaLi) was released by the Telugu University during the same time.