Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma
Categories: 1813 births | 1846 deaths | Carnatic composers | Indian monarchs
Sri Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma(April 16, 1813 - December 25, 1846) was a South Indian king of the state of Travancore, in India. His reign lasted from 1829 to 1846. He was born a king, and was in power even before birth. Therefore, he is called Garbha Sreeman.
| Indian classical music | |
|---|---|
| Carnatic music | |
| Composers | |
| Purandara Dasa | |
| The Trimurti | |
| Tyagaraja | |
| Muthuswami Dikshitar | |
| Syama Sastri | |
| Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma | |
| Singers | |
| M.S. Subbulakshmi | |
| Hindustani music | |
| Concepts | |
| Sruti | |
| Raga | |
| Melakarta | |
| Katapayadi sankhya | |
| Swara | |
| Tala | |
| Mudra |
Besides being an able ruler, he was a patron of music and a musician by himself. He encouraged both the broad systems of Indian music, Hindustani and Carnatic music, though he was essentially a connoisseur of the carnatic music tradition.
He has written and composed songs in different languages and ragas. Some of his favorite compositions are Padmanabha Pahi, Deva Deva, Sarasijanabha, etc. His compositions are sung during the Dusshera season, at Kuthiramalika in the Fort at Trivandrum near Padmanabha Swamy Temple. He was one of the figures noted as Kalineesan in Akilattirattu Ammanai the holy script of Ayyavazhi.The king was very fluent with the various indian languages like marathi,telugu,bengali,tamil,oriya to name a few.He even has composed ragas in several ragas.He can becompared to Alexander the Great in some ways.Both of them died in their early thirties but they are alive even today due to the tremendous influence they had on the generations to come,Alexander in the art of warfare and Swathi Thirunal in the art of composing music,poetry and even singing.It is said that he encouraged artists of various genre to come to his place and even if he finds the artist not entertaining in his court he would dismiss him richly.A man who has been rightly called 'King among poets and Poet among Kings.'