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INTRODUCTION
xvii
Then he lived for some time at the court of king Vīrarāya of Vețţatu Nādu. It was at the request of this king (but according to another Ms., of Rāmavarman) that he composed Candrikā-vīthi to be staged at the Saiva tempie at Triprangoțu on the Sivarātri day. Further he found a temporary patron in Muriyanāțţu Nambilār, a local chieftain of the Mukundapuram Taluk of the Cochin State. During his short stay there he composed a couple of Stotras, Mukundaśatakam and Siva-śatakam, for his patron. Manakottu Achan was another patron whom Rāma Pāṇivāda mentions in his Malayālam work sivapurānam. About A.D. 1735 this patron passed away, the family became extinct, and the estates passed into the possession of Pāliyatu Achans, the traditional ministers of the Rājā of Cochin. Our author became a dependant of Pāliyatu Achan with whom he lived at Jayantaor Chenna-mangalam for some time and received his generous support. It is here that he composed his Vişnu-vilāsam and its Malayālam version Vişnugita at the instance of Śrī-Kubera, the Pāliyam chief.
Rāma Pāṇivāda had spent some time in the neighbourhood of Kumāranallūr, to which place his Brahmin father belonged. During his stay here he came into contact with Thekkețathu Bhattatiri of Kutamāļür Matom and through him with the Rājā of Ampalapuzha or Chempakaśćeri. The Nampūdiri kings of Chempakaśćeri were liberal patrons of poets and scholars from times immemorial ; and many of the Keraļa poets enjoyed their proverbial patronage. Rāma Pānivāda spent some years of his life at the court of the then ruling king Deva Nārāyana. On his request Pāṇivāda wrote many works the chief of which was the Mahākāvya Rāghavīyam, the magnum opus of the poet, along with a commentary on it. Deva Nārāyana's patronage appears to have been quite fruitful since it was at his court that our author wrote Pañcapodi
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