Garikipati Narasimha Rao is an Indian scholar, litterateur, and avadhani from

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (ISO 15919, ISO: , , AP) is a States and union territories of India, state on the East Coast of India, east coast of southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, seventh-largest state and th ...

. In 1996, he performed Avadhanam with 1116 ''Pruchchakas'' for 21 days in

Kakinada Kakinada (; formerly known as Cocanada) is a Port, port city and municipal corporation in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Situated along the Bay of Bengal, it serves as the headquarters of Kakinada district and is a prominent economic and c ...

. He also delivers lectures on personality development based on

dharmic Dharma (; , ) is a key concept in various Indian religions. The term ''dharma'' does not have a single, clear translation and conveys a multifaceted idea. Etymologically, it comes from the Sanskrit ''dhr-'', meaning ''to hold'' or ''to support' ...

culture and way of life. He regularly appears on Telugu TV channels like

SVBC Sri Venkateswara Bhakthi Channel (SVBC TV) is the pioneer devotional (bhakthi) channel of TTD. It is the first 24-hour satellite Telugu devotional channel dedicated to broadcasting Hindu devotional programs and live telecasts of poojas perfo ...

Bhakti TV Bhakthi TV is the first 24-hour satellite devotional TV channel in Telugu that caters to people of Hinduism. It is one of the most prominent devotional channels of both Telugu speaking States which are Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Narendra ...

, and

ABN Andhra Jyothi ABN Andhra Jyothy is an Indian Telugu-language 24-hour news channel launched on 15 October 2009. Aamoda Broadcasting Network is the holding company of the channel and is promoted by Vemuri Radhakrishna. The media house also owns the Telugu da ...

giving discourses on ancient

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

texts like ''Bhagavadgita'', ''

Ramayana The ''Ramayana'' (; ), also known as ''Valmiki Ramayana'', as traditionally attributed to Valmiki, is a smriti text (also described as a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic) from ancient India, one of the two important epics ...

'', and ''

Mahabharata The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; , , ) is one of the two major Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epics of ancient India revered as Smriti texts in Hinduism, the other being the ''Ramayana, Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the events and aftermath of the Kuru ...

''. In 2022, he was awarded India's fourth-highest

civilian award A civilian is a person who is not a member of an armed force. It is illegal under the law of armed conflict to target civilians with military attacks, along with numerous other considerations for civilians during times of war. If a civilian engag ...

Padma Shri The Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī'', lit. 'Lotus Honour'), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. In ...

by the

government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

Personal life

Garikapati was born on 14 September 1958 to the couple Venkata Surya Narayana and Venkata Ramanamma.

Second wife

Garikapati married his second wife Sarada 30 years ago (as of 2013) and she is from

Amalapuram Amalapuram is a town in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is the district headquarters and largest town of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Konaseema district. It is the mandal and divisional headquarters of Amalapuram mandal and Amalapuram revenue di ...

East Godavari East Godavari is a district in the Coastal Andhra region of Andhra Pradesh, India. Its district headquarters is at Rajamahendravaram. Geography This district is surrounded by: * North East: Alluri Sitharama Raju district * North West: Eluru d ...

Career

Garikapati started performing

avadhanam Avadhānaṃ (literally meaning "concentration") is a genre of performance in India, where a performer (called the ''avadhāni'') answers challenging questions from several questioners in parallel. The most popular variety, called ''sāhitya'' (l ...

s in the year 1972. Avadhanis are respected for their abilities to spin out verses conforming to Telugu grammar on literally any subject that audience may throw at them, as a challenge. He has conducted more than 288 avadhanams, including ''Dvigunita Avadhanam'' at

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

for the American Telugu Association in 2002. Rao is known for his

Dhāraṇā ''Dhāraṇā'' () is the sixth limb of eight elucidated by Patanjali's Ashtanga Yoga or Raja Yoga in his ''Yoga Sutras of Patanjali''. It is directing and maintaining the mind's attention to a specific location of the body after sense-withdrawa ...

(memorising and reciting), which is a key requirement for performing Avadhanams.

Awards

* He received Loknayak Foundation Award on 18 January 2016. * "Gurajada Samskritika Samakhya", a literary organization honored him with "Gurajada Visishta Puraskar" in November 2016. * Ramineni Foundation Awards in 2018 *

in 2022.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rao, Garikipati Narasimha 1958 births Living people People from West Godavari district Television personalities from Andhra Pradesh Telugu poets Indian Hindus Recipients of the Padma Shri in literature and education