Gēya Prabandhās of 17 th century Mysore Composers Ragini A.R 1 Abstract : Musical compositions, in Indian music, have been called Gēya Prabandha. Etymologically, a ’Prabandha’ can be termed as a well knit literary composition bound by certain rules on its structure and the theme it portrays. Prabandhās in Vernacular languages, in its evolution has focussed more on themes based on Madhura Bhakti and Śrńgāra rasa as per regional influence. In Kannada literature, Gēya Prabandha’s showcasing the above themes evolved through Vaćana and Haridāsa sahithya . Two prominent works from the seventeenth century from the Mysore composers feature Śri Geeta Gopalam composed by Chikkadēvaraja Wodeyar and Chikkadēvarāya Saptapadi composed by Tirumalārya. Both the compositions are in the form of Saptapadi’s, the former portrays Madhura Bhakti tracing out the various life stages of Lord Krishna and describes the way to salvation channelized through a guru propagating the Sri Vaishnava - Vishisthādvaitha principles in Kannada for the first time. The latter, a śṛṅgāra Saptapadi is a musical tribute to the king, seen as the hero. However, these compositions have largely remained unfamiliar . This paper aims to introduce and present in brief, the multiple dimensions of the Gēya Prabandhās based on their theme, literature and music, assessing the feasibility of mainstream performance. Key Words : Gēya Prabandha, seventeenth century Mysore composers. I. INTRODUCTION “Prabhadyathe iti Prabhandha”- a ‘Prabandha’ can be defined as any literary composition, which is well composed and dexterously interwoven . It connotes the fusion or the ‘bandha’, an attachment between Padās musically or a ‘Padabandha’ as in poetic literature. These were presented as “Sravya kāvya”, only for recitation, a “drushya kāvya” or a “nātaka”, when performed on stage and as a Sangīta (Gēya) Prabandha when it adhered to the rules and framework of music , dance and dialogue [1] . A major application of Gēya Prabandhās using 2 Completed Mphil in Jain (Deemed to be) University, Bengaluru 2018, Corresponding author. 1 of Rāga, Tāḷa, metre, vritta and anga . 2 1