Kansvaho

Author(s): Rama Paniwada, A N Upadhye
Publisher: Motilal Banarasidas

Page 19

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KAMSAVAHO
which is written on the model of Așțapadī of Jayadeva and it appears to have been inspired by the study of Mahānāțakam and Bhagavadajjukiyam of Bodhāyana. It was followed by Līlāvati-vithi and the Prahasana Madanaketucaritam which was staged in the temple of Ranganatha. In honour of the family deity of Deva Nārāyaṇa he composed Ambaranadiśa-stotram.
With the conquest of the kingdom of Chempakasseri by Vīra Mārtanda Varman, the founder of modern Travancore, about the middle of the 18th century A. D., Rāma Pāņivāda became a dependant of this illustrious monarch who was a liberal patron of men of letters and under whose benevolence many Sanskrit and Malayālam poets flourished. On the request of this patron our author wrote Sitārāghavam that was staged at the Sri Padmanabha temple at Trivandrum. Later on he enjoyed the patronage of Kārtika Tirunāl Mahārāja who was a nephew and successor of Mārtanda Varman. He received a decent grant from this patron which he spent on the renovation of the Mandapam of the temple at Killikurići Mangalam. He accompanied the Mahārāja during the royal visits to Sucīndram, Thiruvattār, Kanyākumāri, Padmanabhapuram and other famous temples of South Travancore. He left Trivandrum and settled for some time at Ampalapuzha. It is believed that he died (about A. D. 1775) as the result of the bite of a rabid dog. Rāma Pānivāda seems to have remained a bachelor througho'it his life.
Though Rāma Pānivāda had to change his patrons now and then, his literary career appears to have been quite unbroken and rigorous. Patrons he sought, not to praise them and to get prizes, but to have better opportunities to toil in the fields of learning and scholarship. New circumstances and novel
6 Ambaranadiśä is the god at Ampalapuzha, the family deity of the Rājā of Chempakaśćeri.