Swathi Thirunal was, over a 150 years ago, a king of Travancore. He was also a Carnatic musician. Next week, the city listens to a festival devoted to him. Good news for erstwhile Travancorians - and other music lovers. A curtain-raiser by R. Sridhar

Carnatic music buffs in Mumbai could not have heard a better news. The 91-year-old doyen of Carnatic music-Padamavibushan, Sangeeta Kalanidhi and recipient of Kalidasa Samman, Dr. Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer is coming to Mumbai on February 15. The occasion? Well, a three-day festival of classical Carnatic music is to be held in Mumbai from February 16 to 18. The festival, coordinated by an organization named Keli, will be exclusively devoted to compositions of Maharaja Swathi Thirunal, the late prince of Travancore (1813-1847), and is "aimed at projecting the variety, richness and vitality of Swathi Thirunal's contributions to classical Indian music". Swathi Thirunal is unique in the history of Indian royalty, in that he was more a musician than a king. Keralites have fond memories of the man and his music.
Dr. Srinivasa Iyer, "Semman-gudi" as he affectionately called, will be dedicating this festival to the memory of Maharaja Swathi Thirunal. Semmangudi is very closely attached to the movement to rediscover the magic of Swathi Thirunal. He joined the Swathi Thirunal Academy as its principal in 1942, and served it for over 23 years. During this time, he made substantial contributions towards discovering rare compositions of the Maharaja, published them and made them popular among lovers of music. He incorporated these krits in his concerts, taught them to his students and created an awareness about the quality of these works among the music lovers of south India.
As a token of appreciation for his dedication and efforts, Keli plans to felicitate Dr Srinivasa Iyer with a Veerashrunghala (a traditional gold bracelet of appreciation) during the festival. Celebrated Hindustani vocalist, Kishori Amonkar will be doing the honours. "We chose Kishori Amonkar because like Dr Srinivasa Iyer, she too sticks to tradition while singing," says K. Ramachandran, secretary of Keli.
Keli is a Mumbai-based organization dedicated to bringing art and music lovers in contact with traditional as well as classical Kerala art forms. In the past, it has handled some very exclusive projects such as the Kathakali Festival '97 Kottayam stories and the women's Classical Theatre Festival '98 in association with Prithvi Theatre.
The three-day festival will feature outstanding exponents of Carnatic music, who have specialised in the music of Swathi Thirunal, like T.K. Govinda Rao, Palai C. K. Ramachandran, Ashwati Thirunal Ramavarma, Shivkumar and Gururajan.
Ashwati Thirunal Ramavarma, the last scion of the Swathi Thirunal legacy is trying to revive popular interest in the compositions of the great master. He will be performing in Mumbai at the NCPA on February 12, after which he will also participate in the Swathi Thirunal festival.
This festival is open to the public. The felicitation of Dr. Srinivasa Iyer will take place at 6.45 pm on February 16, at the Y. B. Chavan Centre, Nariman Point, after which there will be a performance by Pala C. K. Ramachandran. The next day, the festival shifts to Karnataka Sangha at Matunga West, where T. K. Govinda Rao's performance will begin at 7 pm. The festival ends on February 18 at Model English School, Dombivli, with Ashwati Thirunal Ramavarma's performance, at 7.45 pm.