Garimella Balakrishna Prasad departs with State honours in Tirupati

Renowned classical composer Garimella Balakrishna Prasad laid to rest with State honours, leaving behind a musical legacy.

The mortal remains of ace classical composer and singer Garimella Balakrishna Prasad, who breathed his last on Sunday (March 9, 2025), were consigned to flames with State honours on Tuesday (March 11, 2025.)

In recognition of his contribution to the field of classical music, the State Government had announced to accord State honours to the departed dignitary, as a special case. In tune with the order, the mortal remains were draped in tricolour and police honours were extended ahead of the funeral procession.

Collector S. Venkateswar paid his respects to the body, while gun-wielding policemen offered salute as per protocol.

Mr. Prasad served the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) from 1978 to 2006, when he composed the tune for nearly 1,000 compositions of saint-poet Tallapaka Annamacharya. By setting tune to the Annamayya’s literature, he had played a key role in transforming the lyrical content into musical form, thus making it accessible to the unlettered masses. Further, he preferred light music as the path to touch millions of hearts. He was even conferred the title of ‘Asthana Vidwan’ (Court musician) by the TTD.

Annamacharya, the fifteenth century Telugu poet, composed more than 30,000 compositions professing the concepts of devotion, romance and renunciation. However, many of the compositions could not be retrieved even today as many inscriptions were lost forever.

It was Mr. Balakrishna Prasad’s avowed objective to unravel the Annamacharya’s philosophy from the recovered literature and bring the essence to the reach of the literary and music lovers.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his condolences to Mr. Balakrishna Prasad’s family and his admirers.