The role of Maharaja Swati Tirunal is highly noteworthy in the development of Indian Music in general and Carnatic music in particular. He also stands supreme among the composer-musicians in the annals of the cultural history of Kerala. It is he who modeled the musical setting in the extreme south during the 18th and 19th centuries even as the musical Trinity – Sri Tyagaraja, Muthuswami Dikshitar and Syama Sastri did in the Cauvery delta and adjoining areas. There is no gainsaying the fact that in the tradition and culture of the present day South Indian music which was nurtured by these great stalwarts, Swati Tirunal has been a key figure whose musical creations have stood the test of the time. There have been several publications – both books as well as Journals – which contain the Text and Notations for the Maharaja’s compositions published in Telugu, Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada and Devanagari scripts. The earliest publication containing the songs of Swati Tirunal appeared in 1912 at Trivandrum and since then efforts continue to bring out more and more publications. But there is no book available giving the complete work of Swati Tirunal Maharaja. To make good this lacuna the present publication is being brought out which for the first time contains all the compositions of Swati Tirunal under one cover in Roman Script so that the songs are easily accessible to anyone in any part of India or abroad.
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