MAHARAAJA SWATHI THIRUNAAL
Raagam chaarukesi Thaalam aadhi
PALLAVI
Krupayaa paalaya sowraey karunaarasavaasa
kalusharthi viraama
||krupayaa||
ANUPALLAVI
Thapaneebhachaela thuhinaam shusuvadhana
Sri padhmanaabha
sarasijalochana ||krupayaa||
CHARANAM
Kurumaey kuchalam mudhaa guruvinthanita dhantha
Niru pama
samsaaraneeradhi varapotha
Naaradhamuka muni nikaragaeya charitha
Vaaraya ma maakila paapa jaatham bhaghavan
||krupayaa||
Paalayamaam padhmanaabhaa paahimaam padhmanabhaa
Pankajalochanaa
padhmanaabhaa sarasijanaabha padhmanaabhaa
SARASIJA NAABHA SWAMIKI! JAI!!!
Although MAHAARAJA SWAATHI THIRUNAAL (1813-1846) lived for only thirty three years he attained immortality in many fields and reminds us by his achievements left indelible maarks on history within their short spans of life. Swaathi thirunaal was a prevocious child and even before he ascended the throne at the age of 13 he had learnt many languages besides english, persian and arabic. But his consuming passion was music and in addition to patronising a large number of musicians both karnatic and Hindustani he learnt the art of composing and today his compositions rank next only to the Trinity of Tanjore who were his contemporaries.
He was one who among the early composers who laid the foundation for the innovative music of the south and he is the second royal composer in line next to king shahaji of the maharatta kingdom who ruled tanjore between 1679 to 1710 A.D
Swathi thirunaal had a lineage of versatile training under the tutelage of stalwarts like parameswara bhagawathar, Irayimman thambi and he had established a scholarly friendship in shatkala govinda Maarar, Meruswamy , Tanjore quartette and host of other scholars. It is learned that Mahaaraaja used to call upon a regular round table conference of his court musicians and musicologists to discuss intricate aspects of music and musicology. This has in variably resulted in his enormous scholarly creations of music compositions. They included varnam, krithi, keerthana, jaavali, tillaana, pada, kshetra krithis, group kurthis for the south indian musical system and khyal, dhrupad, tappa, bhajan etc., for the north indian musical system. He had to his credit more than 4 hundred such compositions and a few musico literary works.
Swathi tirunal parents were RAJARAJA VARMA KOVIL TAMBURAN and RANI LAKSHMI BAI. The royal name for the maharaja was RAMA VARMA KOVIL TAMBURAN but as per the prevalent system the star on which day he was born was assigned to the princes name. His complete life was one of surrender to lord padmanaba, His ishta deiva in the form of musical creations. His compositions are in praise of the LORD PADHMANABA the presiding DEITY of TRIVANDRUM. His four musico literary works include PADHMANABhA SATHAKA, SYANANDURAPURA VARNANA PRBHANDhA, UTSAVA PRABHANDHA and BHAKTHI MANJARI. He has also authored one lakshana work MUHANA PRASA ANTHYA PRASA VYAVASTHA deling on the rhetorical beauties and prosodical rules relating to music compositions.
His compositions embhasising the nava vidha bhakthi or nine parts of devotions are excellent pieces dealing on sravanam, keerthnam, paadhaseavanam, archanam, vandanam, daasyam, sakyam, athmaniveadhanam. He has also composed two musical operas AJAAMILOPAAKHYANA, AND KUCHELOPAKHYAANA based on BAAGAVATHA. So far approximately 400 compositions in various forms are awailable. He has written mostly in sanskrit and some in manipravaalam (mixed with various languages ) hindi, telugu, kannada, tamil. He has also handled rare raagas like GHANDA, DESAAKSHI, GOPIKAVASANTHA, MOHANA KALYAANI AND LALITHA PANCHAMA. Among his compositions the famous navaraathri krithis are very popular which are composed for singing on each day of the nine day festival. The nine songs are
He is only composer in carnatic music to have composed a vast number of PADHA VARNAMS numbering 23. All his four ragamaaligaas KAMALAJASAYAHRITHA, BAAVAYAAMI RAGU RAMAM, PANNAKENDRA SAYANA AND SUMA SAAYAKA, a ragamaalika varna are very popular. Among his hindustani compositions he has used YAMUNA KALYAANI, AMEER KALYAANI, KHAMAAS, SINDHUBAIRAVI, BEHAAG ragas and he has to his credit about 40 songs in this system of music like dhrupad, khyal, tappa, bhajan and tarana
The credit of modelling the music of kerala lies definitely with MAHARAJA. But it was highly saddening that maharaaja lived a very short life of 33 years and he died in the year 1840 bc. But still his compositions are being sung in all the places, temple programs, music concerts particularly during the navaraathri festival.
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