Kuppayar composed his songs in Telugu language and has left behind a number of popular kritis.
Veena Kuppayya was born in a Tamil Brahmin family in Tiruvottiyur, near Chennai.
The Panchrathna kritis are in Telugu and bears his nom de plume “Gópāla-dāsa” – his family deity, Sri Venugopala Swamy.
Kuppayyar later moved to Chennai and sought the patronage of the local ruler Kovur Sundara Mudaliar.
Kuppayyar trained a lot of disciples, who carried forward the legacy of Tyagaraja, helping to spread his krithis.