VIJAYAWADA: Located amidst fully sophisticated and decorated commercial shops in the heart of Vijayawada, the Siva Kameswari Grandhamala offers a wide range of Hindu devotional books. The shop can be considered as the only shop selling over 3000 devotional books.
The Siva Kameswari Grandhamala is located at Bramarambapuram and also has a stall at Rama Koti temple in the city. This small store consists of decades-old Hindu devotional books which are very hard to find in libraries or even with book collectors.
Some of the rare books available at the store count to Kalapurnodayam, Amuktamalyada, Srimadh Ramayanam, Vasthu Gunadeepam, Sitha Ramaajaneya Samvadham, Sangeetha Sarvardha Sara Sangrahamu, Yadhusha Purva Prayoga Rathnakaraha, Thichavalli, Anandavalli, Bruguvalli, Yadusha Prayoga chinthamani, Sasvara Rugveda Prayogadharshani and many others.
Genduri Chandramouliswara Sambamurthi, the founder and owner of the shop, said he started the store when he was 15 years old. “I started the store in the year 1976 to bring Hindu literature and culture into society. Books of other religions are available in the market and accessible free of cost. But all Hindu religious books are not available out there,” he added.
Sambamurthi wanted to start his own books shop when his father G Sivanageswaram was working at a books shop selling devotional books. He was inspired by the books present in the shop.“This store is not to make money. All the money earned is completely invested back to get new books for the store” Sambamurthi said.
Continuing the legacy of Sambamurthi, his younger son started a book stall—Srungeri Sankara Matam—three years ago. Sambamurthi’s elder daughter-in-law G Manjusha is looking after the online sales and recently started providing books through a Facebook page.