What it means to belong to Swati Tirunal’s family and grow up listening to his Navaratri kritis

Rama Varma shares insights about Swati Tirunal’s Navaratri compositions

In cultures all over the world, there have been people who wanted good things to reach the masses and not rest with just a privileged few. Purandaradasa’s songs, which contains the essence our spirituality continue to strike with listeners even several centuries after they were composed. Tulasidas wrote Sri Ramcharithmanas in simple Hindi that could be understood by a vast majority. Muthuswamy Dikshitar incorporated powerful mantras and beejaksharams into his compositions in a way that it would benefit anyone who sang these songs.

Poet Kambar, a Sanskrit and Tamil scholar, retold the Ramayana in Tamil to make it accessible to those who were well-versed in this language. He had a beautiful idol of goddess Saraswathy, which he worshipped. Before he passed away, Kambar gave this idol to the king who ruled Nattarasankottai at the time.

As regimes changed and new kingdoms were born, this precious idol got passed down to the royal family of Travancore, which was founded in 1729 by Marthanda Varma. The capital of Travancore was at Padmanabhapuram in Thuckalay, near Kanyakumari. The palace at Padmanabhapuram, with the Navarathri Mandapam, remains an architectural marvel. The capital of Travancore eventually shifted to Thiruvananthapuram during the reign of Maharaja Swati Tirunal (1813-1846). . He was the one who codified the Navaratri celebrations by composing nine exquisite songs to be sung during the nine evenings. Sanskrit gains a different flavour in the hands of Adi Sankara, Kalidasa, Muthuswamy Dikshitar, Sadasiva Brahmendra and Maharaja Swati Tirunal. The language has been used in a distinct manner by Swati Tirunal in his various works such as Kuchelopakhyanam, Ajamilopakhyanam and swaraksharam-studded sahityam for his phenomenal pada varnams. The same goes for his Navarathri kritis.

Though Tyagaraja is celebrated for his devotion to Rama, Dikshitar to Subramanya, Syama Sastri to Kamakshi, and Maharaja Swathi Thirunal for his devotion to Padmanabhaswamy. But they have also composed songs other than their favourite deities. A classic example are the Navaratri kritis by Swati Tirunal. These nine songs are comparable to the jewels that adorn the goddess as described by the Maharaja.

For instance, ‘Purandaraadi suroththama suruchira kireeta mani kiranaanchitha charane (One whose feet are lit up by the brilliance of the gems studded on the crowns of Indra and all the other gods who bow down before Her and worship Her).

‘Naalamiha phani naayakopi batha aalapithumayi mahimaanam the’ (You are so great that even all the tongues of the thousand heads of Adisesha the divine serpent, would fail to describe your greatness).

These beautiful lines are from ‘Saroruhasana jaaye’‘ the Navaratri Kriti for the sixth day. This song comes studded with a set of splendid jathis, which reveal the Maharaja’s affinity for dance. Some of the other songs such as ‘Bharathi mamava’ in Thodi and ‘Janani mamava’ in Bhairavi have impressive jathis too. I have once heard a scholar say that the Maharaja probably composed these songs even before he might have composed his kritis on Padmanabha.