Information revolution enabled me to get decent amount of info. on Thuravoor Narayana Shastri, my great-grandfather

Copied from ravisiyer.blogspot.com on 14 Apr. 2023, first published there on March 04, 2023

My first post about Thuravoor Narayana Shastri (TNS), eminent Sanskrit scholar, grammarian and teacher of late 1800s and early 1900s from Kerala, seems to have been in July 2016: My family history and how we moved from traditional South Indian Brahmin occupations to others over generations, https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2016/07/some-info-and-speculation-about-my.html , published 11th July 2016.

In that post, I first wrote, "Don't know much about my mother's side. My mother's father was a magistrate (in Trivandrum, IIRC) and I have heard stories about how he was held in pretty high esteem. He and his father, IIRC, were Sanskrit scholars and perhaps his father had been felicitated or had a position in one of the Kerala Hindu king's (Travancore?) court/administration."

Then I spoke to my aunt (mother's sister) over phone. After that conversation, I wrote in the post: "Mother's father (Pata [grandfather in Tamil]) was a magistrate who used to get transferred to various places in Kerala. Eventually the family settled in Trivandrum. Pata knew Sanskrit (I am not sure whether he was a Sanskrit scholar - I would not be surprised if he was an M.A. (Sanskrit) or something similar).

Pata's father (Mother's grandfather and my great-grandfather) was a Sanskrit scholar known as Thuravoor Narayana Sastrigal."

Then I wrote, [Mar. 2023 update: Following links are broken:] 'http://www.simplymalayalees.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=278 [Ravi: This link also seems to give the same/similar info. http://collegeof.net/t-govt-sanskrit-college-palayam-thiruvananthapuram] [Mar. 2023 Update: This link is current and gives almost the same info., http://gsctvpm.ac.in/?page_id=412 ], gives information about Government Sanskrit College, Thiruvananthapuram. "Government Sanskrit College, the oldest of its kind in Kerala, was founded in 1889 by H.H. The Maharaja Sri Mulam Tirunal of Travancore, on the model of the Benares Sanskrit College with title courses in Sanskrit." Very interestingly the web page lists the principals of the college and a "Thuravoor Narayana Sastrigal (1909-1911)" is listed as its third principal. Given what I recall about Pata being talked about as well versed in Sanskrit, I would not be surprised if Pata's father was this same principal of Government Sanskrit College, Trivandrum!

Thuravoor was under Travancore Maharaja. Pata's father had sung a poem/stanzas of a poem in front of Sri Moolam Maharaja (of Travancore) probably in praise of the Maharaja, due to which he was presented with a veera shankalam/shankaram? of 10 tolas Gold.'

...

"Chitthi recalled seeing that gold gift. She said that later on during family financial hardship (times) the gold gift was utilized to make make ornaments for wedding of girl-children (and/or part of it may have got sold, I guess)."

--- end extracts from July 2016 My family history ... blog post ---

From this bare level knowledge of TNS, with sporadic bursts of effort by me and great amount of help from some Malayalam literate persons as well as an elder who visited Govt. Sanskrit College in Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), today in March 2023 we have a far more knowledgeable idea of TNS work and accomplishments. That is quite amazing to me. I think it is the information revolution powered by the Internet that has enabled these results.