I am looking for help from Malayalam script readers to see if my great-grandfather name is mentioned in a history of Kerala literature book

Last updated on 21 Apr. 2023

Copied with link update from ravisiyer.blogspot.com on 14 Apr. 2023, first published there on May 13, 2020 

[1 Mar. 2023 Update: The Vadakkumkur Rajarajavarma Raja book related section of this post has been updated and is current. But the Kēraḷasāhityacaritraṃ book section(s) below have been made obsolete by my post: 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.]

30th May Update: References to TNS have been found in Kēraḷasāhityacaritraṃ, Volume 5, (by) Uḷḷūr Es Paramēśvarayyar. Please see entry 2) in my blog post: Results of Google Books search for തുറവൂർ നാരായണ ശാസ്ത്രി - Malayalam script name of my ancestor Thuravoor Narayana Sastri - and variations, https://tnarayanasasthri.blogspot.com/2023/04/results-of-google-books-search-for.html . end-Update.

29th May 2020 Update:  Dr. Christophe Vielle mentioned over email that he found one mention (only) in "Vaṭakkuṃkūr Rājarājavarmmarājā, [Vadakkumkur Rajarajavarma Raja], Kēraḷīasaṃskṛtasāhityacaritraṃ [History of Sanskrit Literature of Kerala], 6 vols, 1938-55: repr. 1997, vol. 6, p. 116" where there is "one line in a section devoted to the author Keśava Śāstri of Karamana (in Trivandrum), where TNS is presented as an accomplished (prasiddha) pandit." The pic of that page is given below:

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1 Mar. 2023 Update

I sent Shri D.K.M. Kartha a cropped version of above pic which highlighted the sentence with TNS name with red bars in the left and right margin, requesting him to translate it to English. That pic is given below:

Shri Karthaji provided the following English translation of the sentence: "In the college, he (Keshava Shastri) worked as an assistant under the famous scholar Thuravoor Narayana Shastri."

I thank Shri Karthaji for his help in above translation.

--- end 1 Mar. 2023 Update ----

27th May 2020 Update: Please see my post: Sanskrit drama author Bhattasri Narayana Sastri (1860-1911/1918) IS NOT my ancestor Thuravoor Narayana Sastrigal (TNS); What we now know for sure about TNS, https://tnarayanasasthri.blogspot.com/2023/04/sanskrit-drama-author-bhattasri.html . This post states, "Bhattasri Narayana Sastri of 90 odd Sanskrit dramas fame, mentioned in Sahitya Akademi published books (prestigious matter), was based in Tamil Nadu, and is a DIFFERENT person from my great-grandfather Thuravoor Narayana Sastri (TNS) who was based in Trivandrum (Thiruvananthapuram), Kerala as a Sanskrit teacher and scholar (grammarian)."

--- end 27th May 2020 Update ---

Kerala Sahitya Charitram by Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer,  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulloor_S._Parameswara_Iyer, which seems to have been first published in 1960s (after death of Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer who died in 1949), has a history of Malayalam literature but also covers Kerala Sanskrit literature to some extent.

The book is in Malayalam script which I cannot read.

I was wondering if the name of my great-grandfather Thuravoor Narayana Sastri (Sastrigal/Sastrikal) who also seems to be known as Bhatta Narayana Sastri (Shastri) and whose life period seems to be roughly from 1860 to 1911, has been listed in this book in the context of some Sanskrit dramas that he is said to have written.

Note that the wiki page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandalam_Kerala_Varma states "During this period, he (Pandalam Kerala Varma) along with Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer learnt grammar and rhetorical figures under the guidance of Thuravoor Narayana Shastri." So Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer learnt some possibly Sanskrit grammar and rhetorical figures under my great-grandfather (referred from now on as TNS).

Therefore I think there is a possibility that Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer may have mentioned TNS's name and mentioned the Sanskrit dramas that he had written, in the above mentioned book.

The pdf files for volumes 1 and 2 of the Kerala Sahitya Charitram book are available for download at:
http://books.sayahna.org/ml/pdf/ulloor-vol-1.pdf
http://books.sayahna.org/ml/pdf/ulloor-vol-2.pdf

Suggestions on how to search for name of TNS in these books
=============================

I think an easy way to do so is to search for Narayana (in Malayalam script) in these pdfs, using the Find facility of the pdf reader program (including browsers like Chrome). Some results will surely be there as there are some great Kerala literature figures whose name has Narayana. E.g. a) Melpathur Narayana Bhattathiri (also referred to as Narayana Bhatt), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melpathur_Narayana_Bhattathiri who lived from 1560 –1646/1666.
b) Narayana Pandita (of Kerala) This person seems to have been either a contemporary of Melpathur Narayana Bhatt or perhaps lived a little later.

If Thuravoor comes immediately before Narayana (Thuravoor Narayana)

OR

Sastri (or Shastri or Sastrikal or Sastrigal) comes immediately after Narayana (Narayana Sastri)

then such occurrences of Narayana are the ones that I would like to dig deep into.

I need the page numbers where they were found, the volume (1 or 2), and a copy-paste of the sentence in which they were found. That would become enough material for me to dig deeper.

If no occurrence of Thuravoor Narayana or Narayana Sastri are found in the two pdfs (volumes) then I think we can presume that the probability of TNS being mentioned (some form of his name) in the book is very low (close to zero).

Any help rendered would be greatly appreciated :-).

Thanks.

P.S. More about my great-grandfather can be seen in my blog post:  https://tnarayanasasthri.blogspot.com/2023/04/my-great-grandfather-thuravoor-narayana.html .