Swathi Thirunal, Rama Varma, musician cum ruler of the Travancore State

Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma was one of the Maharajah's / Kings of the state of Travancore ( Thiruvidhangore as it locally called ) in India.  He had to reign Travancore even when he was just a baby, first under the Regency of his mother Maharani Gowri Lakshmi Bayi from 1813 till 1815 and then under the regency of his aunt Maharani Gowri Parvati Bayi from 1815 till 1829.  In 1829, he bacame a major and took over  full powers of being a ruler and ruled till his demise in 1846.

Swathi Thirunal is not only known for his good reign and an able ruler of Travancore, he is also known as a patron of music  and was a musician himself.  Both the types of Indian classical music, namely, Carnatic and Hindusthani  were encouraged by him but he was a connoisseur in the carnatic music.  He has about 400 compositions to his name in both Carnatic and Hindustani.  Swathi Thirunal was  known to be fluent in many languages too like, his mother tongue Malayalam,  Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi, Telugu, Kannada, Bengali, Tamil, Oriya and English. Some of his well known and famous kritis are   Padmanabha Pahi, Deva Deva, Sarasijanabha and Sree Ramana Vibho.

Birth of Swathi Thirunaal
Swathi Thirunaal was born in to the Kulasekhara Dynasty  of the Royal family of Travancore  in the southernmost point of India which is now a part of the Kerala state. He was the second child of the Regent queen Gowri Lakshmi Bayi, who ruled during 1811 - 1815 nd the Rajaraja Varma Koyithampuran of Changanasseri Palace.  The well known and the most famous lullaby of Kerala, Omana Thingal Kidavo, was written  and sung by Irayummen Thambi, just for the young prince. He had a sister in Rukmini Bayi and an younger brother in Uthradam Thirunaal Marthandavarma.  Since his mother passed away after the delivery of her third child, the seventeen month old Swathi Thirunaal was declared king and His aunt Gowri Parvati Bayi  reigned on his behalf till he became old enough to attend to the duties.

Education of the King Swathi Thirunal
His father Rajaraja Varma Koyithampuran and his aunt as well as foster mother  took special care about his education.  He started learning Malayalam and Sanskrit at the age of six and English at the age of seven. He also studied many other languages  and impressed his teachers as well as  guests who came to the Palace. Swathi Thirunaal  was also deeply interested in music  and always tried to learn the manguages in which he found good music.  He had his first lessons from Karamana Subrahmania Bhagavathar and Karamana Padmanabha Bhagavathar, then he continued with his English teacher Subbarao. He listened to well known compositions  from accomplished musician and started practising himself.

This was also the time of the Three famous composers  Tyagaraja (1767–1847), Syama Sastri (1762–1827) and Muthuswami Dikshitar (1775–1835). His palace also had accomplished musicians in  Thanjavur Quartet brothers, Tyagaraja's disciple Kannayya Bhagavathar, Ananthapadmanabha Goswami (a Maharashtrian singer known as Kokilakanthameru swami), Shadkala Govinda Marar and many more.

As the ruler of Travancore
He took over from his aunt when he was 16 years old and appointed his teacher as the Diwan. One of the famous moves he did was to shift the secretariat to Thiruvananthpuram from Kollam as he could pay more attention in the day to day affairs . He took steps to curb corruption which was prevalent in those  days  and he is even known to have asked his Diwan to resign for showing favouritism.
He started an English School in the year 1834 which slowly developed in to a college which at present is known as University College. Later many other schools were started in the similar method. He had also brought about reforms in the legal sector and made Kandan Menon from Malabar as his Huzoor Diwan Peshkar to bring about legal reforms. He had also settled many land disputes by carrying out a resurvey of the land,  with the help of Kandan Menon. The first census in the state was taken in the year 1836 and the population was 128068 at that time.

Swthi Thirunal also appointed an European at his palace for bringing modern medicines to his people. Hospitals were started to help the locals who had problems. He also started an engineering department, which was placed under the command of one Lieutenant Horsley who built the Karamana bridge.
The Astronomical Observatory in Thiruvananthapuram, the Museum  and the Zoo, Government Press, Trivandrum Public Library now State Central Library, the Oriental Manuscript Library, etc. were started by Swathi Thirunal. The Maharajah was also an honorary member of the Royal Asiatic Society from 1843.

Swathi Thirunal married Thiruvattar Ammachi Panapillai Amma Srimathi Narayani Pillai Kochamma of the Thiruvattar Ammaveedu family after the demise of his first wife.  In 1843 the Maharajah married Sundara Lakshmi Ammal, daughter of a Mudaliar who had migrated to Trivandrum. Lakshmi was a dancer, known better as Sugandhavalli. The Maharajah first adopted her into Vadasseri Ammaveedu, making her an Ammachi and bestowing the title of Thampi on her family members. In 1845 he constructed the Thanjavur Ammaveedu and Sugandhavalli, along with her family members resided here. Soon after this he passed away in 1846,

After Suganthavalli passed away in 1856 and after a legal dispute in Madras, the family was paid Rs. 10,000, a princely sum, was given to Sugandhavalli's family and the Thanjavur Ammaveedu taken over by the Travancore Government. The Ganapathi idol worshiped by Sugandhavalli was moved and consecrated at the Palkulangara Temple in Trivandrum.

Visit the site for the Compositions of Swathi Thirunal