This article was written by Sri PJ Narayanan, Pittsburgh.
Maharaja Swati Tirunal Rama Varma
(1813 -- 1846)
Swati Tirunal was born on Friday, April 16, 1813 (on swAti star of
month mETam to Rani Lakshmi Bai of Travancore and Rajaraja Varma Koil
Tampuran of Changanassery. He came to be known as garbhashrImAn,
having a claim to the throne at birth since the family had no male
heirs. According to the prevalent practice, he was taught Sanskrit
first -- grammar, poetry and drama, along with vEdAnta, rAjanIti, etc.
He also learned several languages such as Tamil, Telugu, Kannada,
Marathi, Hindusthani, and Persian, apart from his mother tounge
Malayalam. His aunt Rani Parvati Bai wanted the boy to learn English.
The all-round scholar Tanjore Subba Rao, who was to wield a strong
influence on Swati Tirunal's life, was entrusted with the task. The
brilliant boy mastered English and other languages very well.
The musical talents of Rama Varma were developed first by Karamana
Subrahmanya Bhagavatar, a prominent palace musician. Subba Rao was
proficient both in the theory of music and its practice in Tanjore.
Swati Tirunal imbibed a lot of it. He also learned the rare (stringed)
instrument called swarabat from Subba Rao. Swati Tirunal's love for
music brought numerous musicians of repute to the court who, in turn,
enriched his understanding and exposure to music. Kannayya Bhagavatar,
a direct disciple of Tyagaraja, Vadivelu, Chinnayya, Ponnayya, and
Sivanandam -- known as the Tanjore Quartette, -- disciples of
Muthuswamy Deekshitar, are notable among them. A Maratha saint-singer
Meruswamy alias Anantapadmanabha Goswami introduced Swati Tirunal to
the finer points of Carnatic and Hindusthani music as well as the
harikatha tradition. Other scholars and musicians who were associated
with the Maharaja closely were Irayimman Thampi (1782--1862), a noted
poet and composer of music and Kathakali plays, Kilimannoor Koil
Tampuran alias Karindran Tampuran, a Sanskrit scholar and poet,
Shatkala Govinda Marar, an amazing musician with a legendary ability
to sing pallavis and Palakkad (Noorani) Parameswara Bhagavatar
(1815--1891), a gifted singer. Parameswara Bhagavatar and his
sishyaparampara came to be known as the Mullamoottil Bhagavatars.
They, along with the nadaswara vidwans of Padmanabhaswamy Temple,
preserved Swati Tirunal's music for a century till K. Chidambara
Vadhyar, Muthiah Bhagavatar and others started documenting them.
Swati Tirunal's literary contributions include the following.
Bhaktimanjari, an exposition consisting of 1000 shlokams on the nature
and forms of bhakti, addressed to Padmanabha. (The kingdom of
Travancore had been offered at the feet of Sree Padmanabha of
Trivandrum by a predecessor of Swati Tirunal, the kings ruling as
padmanAbha-dAsas or servants of Padmanabha.) PadmanAbhashataka is a
collection of 100 shlokas addressed to Padmanabha.
syAnandYrapuravarNanaprabandha is a kAvya mixing verse and prose
written in the champu style. This describes the legendary history of
the Padmanabhaswamy Temple.
His musical output consists of about 400 compositions in five
languages, namely, Sanskrit, Malayalam, Hindusthani, Telugu, and
Kannada. He has composed compositions of all types: Tanavarnam,
Padavarnam, Swarajati, Krti, Kirtanam, Ragamalika, Javali, Tillana,
Bhajan and even some Hindusthani styles such as Drupad and Tappa. He
modeled his compositions after the 17th century composer Margadarsi
Seshayyangar, and even wrote a treatise on the prosody of Sanskrit
compositions, taking the kritis of Margadarsi Seshayyangar as
examples/models for illustration. His compositions are all devotional.
Most of them are addressed towards Padmanabha or Vishnu. He has
composed several addressed to Krishna, Siva, and Devi also. Some of
his notable compositions are:
1. navaratnamAlika: Nine compositions devoted to the nine
forms of conventional bhakti or devotion.
2. navarAtri kIrtanams: Nine compositions that are sung as the
main piece in the concerts held at the navaratri mandapam
outside Padmanabhaswamy temple during navaratri.
3. utsavaprabandham: Twelve songs and several verses describing
the ten-day long festival at the Padmanabhaswamy temple.
4. kuchElOpAkhyAnam and ajAmiLOpAkhyAnam: Compositions that tell
the respective stories, influenced by the harikatha tradition.
5. ghanarAga krtis: Eight compositions in eight of the ten
traditional ghana-ragams.
6. rAgamAlikas: pannagEndrashayanA, kamalajAsyahrta,
sOhanIswarup (in Hindusthani ragas), Pancharaga swarajati, etc.
(The popular bhavayami raghuramam was composed as an Adi
tala krti in Saveri and was made a ragamalika by Semmangudi.)
7. Dance compositions: Consisting of several padavarnams, varnams,
swarajatis and padams.
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Robotics Institute, CMU pjn@cs.cmu.edu
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
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