Last updated on 18 Apr. 2023
Copied with link update from ravisiyer.blogspot.com on 14 Apr. 2023, first published there on October 01, 2020
[27 Feb. 2023 Major Update: Please visit the following post to get updated info. on Thuravoor Narayana Sastri name being mentioed in Kerala Sahitya Charitram: Few significant occurrences of Thuravoor (തുറവൂർ) Narayana (നാരായണ) Shastri name in Part 5 of Ulloor Kerala Sahitya Charitram, https://tnarayanasasthri.blogspot.com/2023/04/few-significant-occurrences-of.html , published on 16 Feb. 2023. end-Update.]
I had initiated this process by making an online Demand Draft order in SBI and paying for courier charges for home delivery, on 22nd June 2020. Note that University of Kerala, Dept. of Publications seems to accept only Demand Draft mode of payment for such remote purchases. As COVID pandemic upset Puttaparthi life with SBI branch itself closing down for some days, my DD got delivered to me only on 7th Sept. 2020. But the DD date was 1st July 2020 with expiry in 3 months i.e. 30th Sept. 2020!
After some discussion including knowing about possibility of renewing the DD if it does not get encashed before expiry date, I sent it by SpeedPost to University of Kerala on 8th Sept. with them receiving it on 16th Sept.
They seem to have dispatched the books on or around 18th Sept. I received it on 29th Sept. 2020. I sprayed the package with sanitizer and kept it aside for a day or two.
I opened the package yesterday (30th Sept.) evening and took some pics of the two books inside. They are big and heavy. In some of the pics, I put a measuring tape (cms side) across the books to give viewers an idea of how big the books are. Each volume has close to or slightly more than 1000 pages.
[To open pic in larger resolution, right-click on pic followed by open link (NOT image) in new tab/window. In new tab/window you may have to click on pic to zoom in.]
Above pic: Kerala Sahitya Charitram books (Volumes I & II) by Mahakavi Ulloor S. Parameswara Aiyar. Book cover with yellow colour background is Vol. I and the pink colour background book cover is Vol. II.
The two volumes together are 12 cms thick.
The length of the book is 29 cms.
Sample pages of inner content of Vol. I
Sample pages of inner content of Vol. II
Above pic: Bill for the two books/volumes
The cover page (hardback) of one of the volumes has got almost fully, if not fully, detached from the book. I will need to paste that back myself. But that's OK. It is just a minor issue. Getting the book volumes from Kerala, in these COVID pandemic times, is a great thing, as these books don't seem to be available on Internet book stores like amazon.in.
The books are in Malayalam which I cannot read. I had expected an Index where I could locate any entry corresponding to name(s) of my great-grandfather Thuravoor Narayana Sastrigal as I know how they appear in Malayalam script. But in my first look at the two volumes, I could not find any Index! So that makes the task of checking these two huge books for mention of my great-grandfather name, a much more difficult task.
To know more about my ancestor Thuravoor Narayana Sastrigal, readers may visit my blog post: https://tnarayanasasthri.blogspot.com/2023/04/my-great-grandfather-thuravoor-narayana.html or my (equivalent) Facebook post: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2367803636769533 .
Note that the author of these volumes, Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer, as reported by wikipedia page of Pandalam Kerala Varma, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandalam_Kerala_Varma, had studied grammar and rhetorical figures (along with Pandalam Kerala Varma) under guidance of my great-grandfather Thuravoor Narayana Sastrigal.
I have also given the parcel pic below (with some info blanked out) as it has an interesting collection of stamps of famous Indians: C.V. Raman, Mahatma Gandhi, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and Sachin Tendulkar!
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--Name-snipped-- sir, thanks for the very kind words. I think they are just some humble efforts of mine, born out of gratitude, to record contributions made by an ancestor of mine, whose Sanskrit scholarship in his times, surely helped him nurture our family (including my mother and her father) as that scholarship earned patronage from then Travancore kingdom ruler(s). I don't know whether he was mainly (or only) a teacher and a commentator (on Sanskrit literature), or whether he did write works of his own in Sanskrit.
As Ulloor Mahakavi was, as per wikipedia, a student of his for some time, I felt that the right history of Kerala literature to check for mention of my great-grandfather's name & works, is this book, which is said to have coverage of some Sanskrit literature besides Malayalam literature output of Kerala.
If Ulloor Mahakavi's book also does not mention him then perhaps my great-grandfather did not compose any Sanskrit works of his own (different from commentary type articles he seems to have written in journals/magazines of that time on some matters). And that would be fine with me. I just want to know the truthful picture of my great-grandfather's Sanskrit scholarship work, and share that publicly on blog & Facebook.
Note that he was a traditional systems Sanskrit scholar (so he would have probably studied in a Veda Pathashala type system) where research publications may not be stressed so much, which is different from European style scholarship where a scholar has to have research publications. I think my great-grandfather lived at a time when Kerala academic system even for Sanskrit studies, was moving from traditional academic system (Veda pathashala type) to European style academic system, with Prof. A.R. Rajaraja Varma (ARRV),
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._R._Raja_Raja_Varma,
http://sahitya-akademi.gov.in/publications/pdf/a-r-rajaraja-varma_english.pdf, a royal family person and a friend & colleague of my great-grandfather, being educated in/or passing in European style academic system in Madras university (B.A. and M.A.). ARRV was first in his M.A. exam.
ARRV has many works to his name and seems to have been a prolific composer & writer. As I wrote earlier, perhaps my great-grandfather was more of a teacher and did not write/publish books. As per family handed-down history, he is known to have composed at least one Sanskrit poem in honour of the then Travancore king, which he recited in front of him and received gold presents for. But perhaps this poem and any other Sanskrit poems he composed were never published as a book. Perhaps book publication then required a lot of patronage which he could not organize or was not so keen on organizing.
Hope this was not too long a response :-). Thanks again sir for your kind words.
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In response to a comment (over email) about this being a good opportunity to learn to read Malayalam, I wrote (slightly edited):
No time for that bro. However, I can recognize the string of Malayalam characters that make up my gr-grandfather's name. Had there been an index I would have gone through the whole index looking for it as the index would have been some tens of pages but not crossing hundred.
Without an index, we are looking at around 2000 big size (like A4 or letter size) pages! That makes the task a virtually impossible one for me. Somebody who reads Malayalam and thus can guess parts of the book that may have his name and focuses only on those parts, and who can spare the time for this task, is needed. ... Given COVID pandemic, I think, as of now, that too gets into the realm of almost impossible.
But I have the books (which are not available even on Internet book shops and does not seem to have an ebook version) and that is a big step forward in this quest to establish whether my gr-grandfather did publish any books (in Sanskrit or even in Malayalam) that were notable enough to make it to his student's book which seems to have a list of Kerala literature besides other things.
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