Prince Rama Varma.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu Archives
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.
A painting Maharaja Swati Tirunal
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
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…