Apart from learning Vedic texts and grammar, Sri Raghavendra Swamy was also naturally drawn to the world of music from childhood since it was in the gene of his family.
Sri Raghavendra Swamy is known to have composed several songs and his own lilting composition ‘Indu Enage Govinda’ and ‘Maruta Ninnaya Mahime’ in Kannada are among the largest collections of songs which are popular even today.
The forefathers of Guru Raghavendra Swamy were great musicians and learned Sanskrit scholars under the patronage of the King Mayuravarma of Kadamba dynasty. His forefathers migrated to the Vijayanagar empire and one of the key scholars in the Vijayanagar Kingdom under the great Krishnadevaraya was Sri Krishna Bhatta. It is said that Sri Krishna Bhatta, an ancestor of Sri Raghavendra Swamy, taught emperor Krishnadevaraya the playing the veena.
After the fall of the Vijayanagar empire, the grandson of Thimmanna Bhatta, who was the father of Sri Raghavendra Swamy, shifted their base to Kumbakonam in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu and took refuge under Sri Surendra Theertha enjoying the patronage of the then ruler Ranga Raya.