Maharaja Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma

Sri Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma III was the Maharaja of the Kingdom of Travancore. He was a musician and composer who wrote over 400 classical compositions in both Carnatic and Hindustani style. 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. From Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swathi_...) under Creative Commons Attribution CC-BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...)