SWATI THIRUNAL
The greatest figure in Kerala's musical tradition
who ranks one among the greatest personalities in the history of the
Carnatic system of Indian music is Maharaja Swati Tirunal. He wrote eight works,
six of them in Sanskrit and two in Malayalam. They are mos tly
hymns and commentaries. His greatest contribution was in music. His
musical compositions are supposed to number over five hundred.
Swati's ambition was to assimilate the best in all
traditions and reutilize the native heritage. He invited to his court Kannayya, the disciple of Tyagaraja; the brothers Vadivelu, Meru Swami
from Maharashtra; Lakshmana Das from Gwalior and Suleiman and Allauddin
who were the exponents of the Hindustani music.
Swati has given songs in Sanskrit, Hindi, Telugu, Kannada
and Malayalam. Besides 'Kritis', typical of the south, he has composed
Dhrupads, Tappas and Khayals. Several of the compositions are in rare
ragas like Saranganatta, Lalita Panchamam, Mohana Kalyani Dvijavanti
and Gopika Vasantam. Some of these sacred songs are epitomes in a miniature,
of the Ramayana and Mahabharata. One of his brilliant achievement is
Ragamala on the ten incarnations of Vishnu. Each stanza is a different
raga. In many of his compositions he worked the name of the raga into
the lyrical text in such a way that it becomes a word meaningfully fitted
into narrative. He managed it in Ragamalas and in one instant, in a
ragamala in Hindi. The syllables pertaining to percussion instruments
have been skillfully interwoven into the texture of some compositions
like Nrityati in 'Sankarabharanam' and Sankara Sri in 'Hamsnandi'. The
starting point in his kritis are varied. In Smarajanaka he has used
atitagraha i.e. the song starts before the first beat of tala, slow
and fast tempi are dexterously interwoven in kritis like Karunakara
in Begada and Bhogindra in Kuntalavarali.
This virtuosity reached astonishing heights in the
class of compositions known as Varnams. They are longer composition
than kirtanas. Here Swati tried to weave the phemomes sa, ri, ga, ma
which are the standard notation for the scale notes, into the lyrical
text where they become accented and therefore conspicuous phonetic elements
of words meaningfully used.
Swati was aiming at some pervasive spread of musical
culture. He laid down what ragas should be sung or rendered in instrumental
music every day at the Padmanabha temple, Trivandrum. He composed kirtans
for this daily service. He composed a Garland of nine gems, nine compositions.
One for each day of Dussehra festival. He had cadjan leaf copies made
of these compositions and distributed them to other centres in the state
as well as outside it.
The stabilization of classical music in daily and seasonal
ritual was a historical stop in the evolution of Kerala's musical tradition.
Swati introduced the 'Harikatha' or sacred recital from Maharashtra with
the help of Meruswami. He invited Meruswami to his court especially
for this purpose. The ruler himself wrote three extended compositions
for such recitals. He has used Abhangas, Dinders and Chhands which are
Marathi song moulds. Swathi used to compose songs in Malayalam
and simple Sanskrit.
In every one of his kirtans, Swati preferred to use
the name of the family deity, Sri Padmanabha. For him, the human soul
becomes the maiden consumed by passionate longing for union with God's
love. One of the kirtans expresses the emotions of a love lorn maid
as the night deepens and each of its eight divisions goes by without
her lover arriving. It is a ragamala of eight ragas. The first raga
is Sankarabharanam, the mode usually sung at nightfall and the last
is Bhupala, the raga sung at the hour before dawn. The poetic tissue
is rich in the familiar conceits of the Sanskrit tradition. Swati also
brought in many Bharata Natya exponents from the neighbouring state,
Tamil Nadu and contributed to the dance tradition in Kerala by composing
fifty padams in Malayalam.
Swathi
Sangeetholsavam, a week long music festival, is held in tribute
to Maharaja Swathi Thirunal annually from January 6 to 12 at the 'Kuthira
Malika' palace complex at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India. the
festival is organised by Prince
Rama Varma, a direct descendant of Maharaja Swathi
Thirunal.
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