Chetty Bhanumurthy

{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2015}}

{{copyedit|date=June 2025}}

{{Infobox clergy

| child = Priest

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| name = Chetty Bhanumurthy, CBCNC

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| birth_date ={{Birth date|1888|02|23}}Roger E. Hedlund, Jesudas M. Athyal, Joshua Kalapati, and Jessica Richard (Edited), The Oxford Encyclopaedia of South Asian Christianity, 2012. [http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198073857.001.0001/acref-9780198073857-e-0220]

| birth_place = Cocanada (Madras Presidency)

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| death_date ={{death date and age|1973|1|6|1888|2|23}}

| death_place = Andhra Pradesh

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| years_active = 1912–1973 (61 years)

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| education =

• Teacher Training Course,
• L.Th. (Serampore)

| alma_mater =

• CBM-Cocanada Girls' Boarding School, Kakinada (Madras Presidency)
• CBM-Samalkota Boys' School, Samalkot (Madras Presidency)
• Pithapuram Rajah College, Kakinada (Madras Presidency)
• Serampore College, Serampore (Bengal Presidency) {{small|(1915–1918)}}

| known_for = Lyrical compositions in Telugu Christian Hymnal

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| religion = Christianity

| church =Canadian Baptist Mission/Convention of Baptist Churches of Northern Circars

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| congregations = CBM-Andhra Baptist Church, Kakinada {{small|(1913–1914/1918–1919)}}

| offices_held =

• Spiritual Formator, ABM-Ramayapatnam Baptist Theological Seminary, Ramayapatnam {{small|(1920–1928)}}
• Spiritual Formator/Principal, CBM-Baptist Theological Seminary, Kakinada {{small|(1928–1952/1952–1955)}}

| title = The Reverend

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Chetti Bhanumurti (born 23 February 1888;Mary Stillwell McLaurin, Chetti Bhanumurti in John Craig, J. R. Stillwell, I. C. Archibald, A. E. Baskerville (Edited), Some of the Trophies: Canadian Baptist Foreign Mission Board Jubilee Volume, Telugu Trophies - The Jubilee story of some of the principal Telugu converts in the Canadian Baptist Foreign Mission in India from 1874 to 1924, American Baptist Publication Society, Toronto. [https://archive.org/stream/MN41713ucmf_9/MN41713ucmf_9_djvu.txt] died 6 January 1973) was a Hymn Writer whose hymns are found in the Hymnal in Telugu.[https://books.google.com/books?id=fm9fkgAACAAJ&q=andhra+christian+hymnal Andhra Christian Hymnal, Christian Literature Society, Madras, 1966] Bhanumurti was a Pastor of the Canadian Baptist Mission/Convention of Baptist Churches of Northern Circars who also led the Principalship of the Baptist Theological Seminary, Kakinada from 1945 to 1956 leading to its affiliation to the nation's first University, Senate of Serampore College (University) in 1946Orville E. Daniel, Rising Tides in India, Canadian Baptist Foreign Mission Board, 1963, p.91. [https://books.google.com/books?id=J9YQAQAAIAAJ&q=baptist+theological+seminary+kakinada+serampore]

Comparative religion Scholar R. R. Sundara Rao who researched at the University of Wisconsin–Madison highlighted the literary standard of Chetty Bhanumurti terming him as a pioneer hymn writer whose songs had the element of Bhakti.R. R. Sundara Rao, Bhakti theology in the Telugu hymnal, CISRS/CLS, Bangalore/Chennai, 1983. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Yio1AAAAIAAJ] The Old Testament Scholar, Victor Premasagar was also enthused by the lyrical content in Bhanumurti's compositions,T. Dayanandan Francis, Attempts at Critical Assimilation in Regional Christian Literature: A Tamil Perspective in H. S. Wilson (Edited), The Church on the Move: A Quest to Affirm the Biblical Faith - Essays in honour of P. Victor Premasagar, CLS, Chennai, 1988, pp.135-144 [https://books.google.com/books?id=hMJIygAACAAJ] especially Hymn Number 94 titled Yesuku Samanulevaru (Translated Who is equal to you Lord?) with direct reference to Psalm 71:19 and strikingly similar to Tyagaraja's composition in Kharaharapriya. Dayanandan Francis brings Chetti Bhanumurti in the line of another Hymn writer, Puroshottam Choudhary and writes,

{{quote|Like Choudari, Bhanumurti also is interested in picking up ideas, thought-forms and even ragas from popular Hindu poems and lyrics, while at the same time endeavouring to broaden the perspectives found in such religious literary forms with distinctive Christian ideas.}}