“A civilization is not built merely on material achievements but on the continuity of its culture.”-Dr.S.Radhakrishnan
Indian classical music through different ages has largely evolved through oral transmission shaped by patronage, lineage, and place which has shaped its culture. In the process of this evolution, many compositions have disappeared due to oral transmission, loss of manuscripts, or changing performance practices. However, music centered as the heart of the society remembers what history forgets;and reviving these compositions through reconstruction gives it voice.
Reviving musical compositions lost to time through research, visuals, and immersive storytelling lies at the heart of the Vanamala Center for Art and Culture®, an organisation headed by Dr. Meera Rajaram Pranesh. Guided by a commitment to preservation and dissemination, this initiative seeks to gently bring forgotten musical memories into the present.
This exploration reflects the reconstruction of some of the forgotten vignettes from the courts of the Mysuru kingdom of the 17th and 18th centuries, including works attributed to Chikkadevaraja Wodeyar, Kantheerava Narasaraja Wodeyar, Rani Cheluvamba, and Kalale Nanjaraja, which represent a subset of the extensive research carried out as part of her doctoral work on the patronage of the Mysuru courts, later published as the book Musical Composers during the Wodeyar Dynasty (1638–1947 A.D.). Mysuru court fostered composers, vaggeyakaras, and instrumental traditions that blended devotion, aesthetics, and intellectual rigour. However, with shifting political landscapes and the gradual decline of princely patronage, many of these compositions receded into obscurity. This study outlines the steps undertaken to reconstruct some of these works under Dr. Meera’s guidance and make them accessible to contemporary audiences through curated releases on the YouTube channel of the Vanamala Center for Art and Culture®.
Śri Geeta Gōpālam of Chikkadevarāja Wodeyar
The 17th-century Mysuru Wodeyar courts were vibrant cultural spaces where music, philosophy, and the arts flourished together. Among their enduring legacies was Śrī Gīta Gōpālam by Chikkadevaraja Wodeyar, a remarkable work that reflects the rare meeting of kingship and creativity. Composed in simple Kannada as a geya rūpaka (vernacular operatic form), it presents Lord Krishna as the hero and the gopīs as heroines, making devotional philosophy accessible to all. Apart from being presented in the royal courts, the work is said to have been also preserved within the temple traditions of Melkote Cheluvanarayana Swamy, thereby living on as both art and worship, as a magnum-opus which was lost slowly in the annals of time. Drawing from the Daśama Skandha of the Śrīmad Bhāgavata, the prabandha explores the bond between jīvātma and paramātma through the motif of saptapadi. Across 85 songs, it weaves ideas of śaraṇāgati and mokṣa, expressing bhakti-śṛṅgāra as a yearning for liberation. It also reflects the devotional currents of its time, including the shift toward Śrīvaiṣṇava thought and the influence of the Bhakti movement. As a sampradāya pada, it presents the ideals of Viśiṣṭādvaita, including compositions on Ramanujacharya, blending devotion, philosophy, and royal patronage into a single musical form. One such composition, Sōgasuvē Gēgalige from the Pūrvabhāga Saptapadī, mentioned in the raga Kambodhi, was carefully reconstructed, capturing the voice of a gopī longing for Krishna. Notated and set to tune with a devotional focus, it was later brought into the visual realm through dance. The choreography drew inspiration from Tirumalārya’s Chikkadevarāya Saptapadi, a contemporary text documenting the dance practices of the period, with movement and costume thoughtfully adapted to reflect the historical narrative. This composition describes the style of dance in the court of Chikkadēvarāya. The dancer also brought out her emotions as described in the Śṛṅgārabhava dashapadi from Chikkadevaraja Saptapadi.
Koravanji Katle of Kantirava Narasaraja Wodeyar II
Among the larger reconstructions is a work that offers a rare window into an early form of Yakshagana, and perhaps stands as the composer’s most expansive creation. Multilingual in spirit, it moves across Kannada, Prakrit, Telugu, and Tamil, reflecting the fluid cultural exchanges of the time. Set in a range of ragas including Malavi, Abheri, Kambhoji, and Ghantarava, the composition incorporates forms such as dvipadas and darus. As part of the reconstruction, a composition from the Andhra Koravanji in the raga Malavi was revisited from the original manuscripts, carefully adapting to the raga-lakshana as understood in the seventeenth century. Raga Malavi today is seen as a janya of Harikambhoji while in the 17th century the raga belonged to Malavagowla, and hence, the composition has been tuned within the same dimension. The work was brought into the visual realm through a stylised presentation, with artists appearing in Koravanji costume to evoke its theatrical origins. Throughout the process, particular care was taken to retain instrumental authenticity, ensuring that the reconstruction remained faithful to the historical context.
Rani Cheluvambe is remembered as a remarkable figure of the Mysuru court, she was the daughter of Kalale Kantaiah and one of the aṣṭa-mahiṣīs of Krishnaraja Wodeyar I, and is known as one of the earliest known women composers in the region’s musical history. Her creative legacy is both rich and diverse, including works such as Varanandi Kalyāṇa Saṅgatya, Maṅgalārati Padas, the Veṅkaṭācala Māhātmya Lāli (a cycle of 203 songs), and the Alamelu Maṅgamma lullabies (35 songs). Notably, her lullaby compositions are classified under the Viprakīrṇa Prabandha tradition, revealing a sophisticated blending of devotion, literature and musical form within the courtly-cultural milieu of Mysuru. As part of the reconstruction, a composition from the Alamelu Manga Lali Padas, from the original manuscripts, conceived as an ode to Goddess Alamelu Manga was selected for presentation. Set in raga Kambodhi and mishra chapu tala, the piece follows a choupadi structure, with the pallavi opening gently with “jo-jo.” Each succeeding choupadi alternates its cadence between “lali” and “jo-jo,” creating a soothing, lullaby-like flow.
Gīta Gangādhara, a musical opera attributed to Kalale Nanjaraja, survives today only in faint traces of memory and manuscript. A relatively lesser-known Sanskrit aṣṭapadi, the work was carefully reconstructed with the research core team examining and decoding the manuscript, translating and transliterating it to Kannada and English, publication of the book, travelling to Kalale, the composer’s land that once nurtured the composition, seeking details not only in texts but in local memory and oral recollection.
From this one of the compositions was tuned to raga Vasantha and shaped anew. The final stage of the reconstruction brought the work into the visual realm through dance, where music, movement, and history converged. In being heard and seen again, Gīta Gangādhara moves beyond archival recovery, re-entering the present as a living work carrying with it the echoes of the world in which it was first imagined.
In this ongoing journey, looking to the past is not an act of nostalgia, but a way of understanding how music has grown and taken shape over time. As the noted 20th-century musicologist Carl Dahlhaus reminds us,“The historical understanding of music is not a luxury but a necessity.” The study of the past is therefore critical as the evolution of music has to be positioned in context of previous studies and not in isolation. Reconstruction, in this sense, becomes a way of caring for what we have inherited, which cannot be seen not merely as an academic exercise but also an act of cultural continuity to revive forgotten ideas when approached with care and critical judgement ensuring that they can be preserved for future generations. In this context, bringing objectivity to the study of the past while allowing for meaningful interpretation lies at the heart of the research undertaken at the Vanamala Center for Art and Culture® .
