Sri Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma III (16 April 1813 – 26 December 1846) was the Maharaja of the Kingdom of Travancore.

[2] A code of laws, courts of justice, introduction of English education, construction of an observatory, installation of the first Government printing press, establishment of the first manuscripts library were amongst the many initiatives taken by Swathi Thirunal, as a King, to modernize Travancore.

[3] Swathi Thirunal was born into the Venad dynasty of the Matrilineal royal family of Travancore, which is now a part of Kerala, on 16 April 1813.

In 1829 Swathi Thirunal reached majority at 16 and assumed full powers of ruler and reigned as the Maharajah of Travancore until his death in 1846.

The young Prince studied several languages, including Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil, Hindustani, Telugu, Marathi, Sanskrit, English and Persian.

Colonel Welsh summed up the boy King's genius as follows:Swati Tirunal, now thirteen... took up a book of mathematics and selecting the forty-seventh proposition of Euclid sketched the figure on a country slate but what astonished me most was his telling us in English that Geometry was derived from the Sanskrit, which as Jaw metor (Jyamiti) to measure the earth and that many of our mathematical terms were also derived from the same source such as hexagon, heptagon, octagon...

This promising boy is now, I conclude, sovereign of the finest country in India for he was to succeed to the Musnud (throne) the moment he had attained his 16th year.

[6][7] Together they had three children but in 1839 Narayani Pillai Ammachi died, leaving behind a son, Thiruvattar Chithira Nal Ananthapadmanabhan Chempakaraman Thampi.

A few months later, for the care of the baby, the Maharajah married another lady called Neelamma Pillai Ammachi by adopting her into the Thiruvattar Ammaveedu.

He also implemented reforms in the legal sector, starting Munsif, District and Appellate Courts and modernizing laws.

Despite the progress achieved in varied fields under Swathi Thirunal's reign, the Kingdom of Travancore, like the rest of British India, was in the grip of extreme caste discrimination against Hindu lower classes (dalits).

Finding that there was so much in common between western astronomy and Indian (eastern) astrological understanding of planets, stars and the known universe; Swathi Thirunal set the initiative to start an Astronomical Observatory.

The current observatory site was chosen on top of a laterite mount near the Kanakakunnu hill, which was observed as having the best western sky views in Eastern hemisphere, being near the equator and the Arabian sea.

In the early sixties, in relation to Indian Space Research Organisation, ISRO, the founder Dr. Vikram Sarabhai selected this astronomy observatory to study equatorial night skies.

He assigned his doctoral students, notably Dr. A.P.J Kalam and Dr. K. Narayanan Nair, to collect data on cosmic rays and ionosphere.

A report on the English schools in Travancore appeared in The Gardner's Magazine of 1841, wrote about the administrative reforms brought in by Maharajah Swathi Thirunal:Rajah of Travancore, the great promoter of science in the East, was only twenty-eight years of age, and had not reigned more than ten years, yet, during that short period, he had caused himself to be distinguished by his accomplishments as well as by his' liberality.

He was informed, on good authority, that there was not a child who had reached eight years of age not capable of reading and writing; but this distinguished prince, not satisfied with advancing the interests of elementary education, had established an observatory, and placed in it an English gentleman, a member of the Royal Society of London, and who was in that room – he meant Mr. Caldecott.

Swathi Thirunal was fluent in a number of languages including Malayalam, Sanskrit, Marathi, Telugu, Kannada, Hindustani,[11][12] Bengali, Tamil, Oriya and English.

Swathi Thirunal's palace also was home to many musicians and artistes of the period, including the famous Thanjavur Quartet brothers, Tyagaraja's disciple Kannayya Bhagavathar, Ananthapadmanabha Goswami (a Maharashtrian singer known as Kokilakanthameru swami), Shadkala Govinda Marar, and many others.

The literary works of Maharajah Swathi Thirunal include Bhakti Manjari', Syanandurapuravarnana Prabandham, Padmanabhasatakam, Muhanaprasa Antyaprasa Vyavastha, Ajamila, Kuchela Upakhyanas and Utsava Varnana Prabandha.

Allen's Indian Mail and Register of Intelligence of British &Foreign India, China, & All Parts of the East wrote: Both intellectually and morally, he was indeed far beyond his country and equals in rank; in both respects he might have taken a high place among the most enlightened of European Sovereigns had his destiny been so cast.

He is not unknown to fame in the European world, for most of you must be aware that the deceased Rajah maintained an observatory at considerable expense, and that MR Caldecott was for a length of time, his highness's astronomer.

He was a steady and staunch advocate of education, friend and patron of men of letters ... his loss will doubtless be greatly deplored by Travancoreans as a national calamity.The Journal the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland ran an obituary in 1847 which mourned that, The early death of this enlightened and princely patron of true science, is a subject of just regret.Prince Rama Varma, renowned South Indian Classical musician and descendant of Swathi Thirunal, organizes the Swathi Sangeethotsavam, a 10-day music festival featuring exclusively the compositions of Maharaja Swathi Thirunal.

[14][15] [1] : Articles and compilations by Dr Achuthsankar S Nair in Sruthi Magazine, June 2013 and Journal of Madras Music Academy, 2009