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{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{Use Indian English|date=May 2025}}
'''''[[Diwan Bahadur]]''''' '''Palakkal Raman Menon''' '''''[[Dalavayi|Dalawa]]''''' '''''Mannadinayar''''' (also '''Palakkad Raman Menon''' and '''Ankarath Raman Menon''')<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Mathew |first=K. M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wLe9CgAAQBAJ&q=raman+menon+travancore |title=The Eighth Ring: An Autobiography |date=2015-10-25 |publisher=Penguin UK |isbn=978-93-5214-044-2 |language=en}}</ref> was [[Diwan of travancore|Dewan of Travancore]], serving [[Gowri Lakshmi Bayi|Maharani Gowri Lakshmi Bayi]], and then [[Gowri Parvati Bayi|Maharani Gowri Parvati Bayi]] during their successive regencies for [[Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma|Maharaja Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma]], from 1815 to 1817,<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Kutty |first=V. K. Madhavan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=efcADgAAQBAJ |title=V. K. Krishna Menon |publisher=Publications Division Ministry of Information & Broadcasting |isbn=978-81-230-2361-8 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=George |first=T. J. S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JNFBAAAAIAAJ&q=raman+menon+travancore+diwan |title=Krishna Menon: A Biography |date=1965 |publisher=Taplinger Publishing Company |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=A |first=Shaji |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pbZEDwAAQBAJ&q=raman+menon+travancore |title=Politicisation of Caste Relations in a Princely State |date=2017-12-17 |publisher=Zorba Books |isbn=978-93-87456-00-6 |language=en}}</ref> and [[Dalawa]] of [[Travancore]] thereafter, holding auxiliary office as [[Faujdar|Fouzdar]].<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Menon |first=P. Shungoonny |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gxsrz7DAPxIC |title=History of Travancore from the Earliest Times |date=1998 |publisher=Asian Educational Services |isbn=978-81-206-0169-7 |language=en}}</ref>

Previously he served as a [[Sheristadar]] and justice of the Huzhur Court of Travancore,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Sastri |first1=Kallidaikurichi Aiyah Nilakanta |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rn1DAAAAYAAJ&q=raman+menon+travancore+diwan |title=A Comprehensive History of India |last2=Congress |first2=Indian History |date=1957 |publisher=Orient Longmans |isbn=978-81-7007-003-0 |language=en}}</ref> as [[Sarvadhikari]] of the [[kingdom of Cochin]], serving [[Kerala Varma III]], and as [[Sarvadhikari]] of the [[Calicut (kingdom)|kingdom of Calicut]].<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=INSTITUTIONS |first=VED from VICTORIA |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AVd1AQAAQBAJ |title=TRAVANCORE STATE MANUAL - A commentary!: Along with the full text of TRAVANCORE STATE MANUAL Vol 1 |publisher=VICTORIA INSTITUTIONS, Aaradhana, DEVERKOVIL 673508 India www.victoriainstitutions.com |language=en}}</ref> Colonial administrator [[John Munro, 9th of Teaninich|General John Munro, 9th of Teaninich]] was his patron, and, later, antagonist.<ref>{{Cite book |last=State) |first=Travancore (Princely |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LzluAAAAMAAJ |title=The Travancore State Manual: History |date=1996 |publisher=Government of Kerala, Kerala Gazetteers Department |isbn=978-81-85499-24-6 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dAhuAAAAMAAJ&q=raman+menon |title=A Comprehensive History of India: The consolidation of British rule in India, edited by K. K. Datta and V. A. Narain |date=1988 |publisher=People's Publishing House |isbn=978-81-7007-003-0 |language=en}}</ref>

[[Reddy Row]]'s successful intriguing displaced Menon from the Diwanship to the obsolete offices of [[Dalavayi|Dalawa]] and [[Faujdar|Fouzdar]] in 1817, whereupon Menon elected to not even bother dignifying the sinecures' demands. He did ally to himself a young [[R. Venkata Rao|Rai Raya Rai Venkata Rao]], then new to Munro's retinue as a fresh, scholarly, English-speaking young bureaucrat, facilitating Rao's selection as ''Diwan Peishkar''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=INSTITUTIONS |first=VED from VICTORIA |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AVd1AQAAQBAJ |title=TRAVANCORE STATE MANUAL - A commentary!: Along with the full text of TRAVANCORE STATE MANUAL Vol 1 |publisher=VICTORIA INSTITUTIONS, Aaradhana, DEVERKOVIL 673508 India www.victoriainstitutions.com |language=en}}</ref> When [[Reddy Row]] accepted the small [[jagir]] of two villages in [[Sengottai]] ([[Sambavarvadakarai]]) from Maharani Gowri Parvati Bayi as thanks for having skilfully married off Princess Rukmini Bayi, and, concurrently, Newall retired, Menon and Rao struck; highlighting the prospect of corrupt dealing to the incoming Resident, who opened an investigation into possible impropriety. Reddy Row was ultimately forced from the Diwanship in only 1821, whereupon R. Venkata Rao succeeded him.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Menon |first=P. Shungoonny |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gxsrz7DAPxIC |title=History of Travancore from the Earliest Times |date=1998 |publisher=Asian Educational Services |isbn=978-81-206-0169-7 |language=en}}</ref>

In 1828 the new Maharaja of Cochin, [[Rama Varma XI]], apologized for the expropriation of Menon's family's assets, restoring them, and conferring the title of ''Mannadi Nair'' on Raman Menon, his brother, and their descendants, with women receiving the style of ''[[Nethyar Amma]]''.{{fact|date=May 2025}}

== Family ==
Menon was born to Narikkode Kunjulakshmi Amma and Kunjunni Thampuran of the [[Mankada]] [[kovilakam]] of the [[Kingdom of Valluvanad|Velattiri royal family of Valluvanad]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-10-14 |title=Ankarath Family - Ankarath Parijathapuram Vishnu Temple |url=https://ankarathvishnutemple.com/ankarath-family-origins/ |access-date=2024-02-18 |language=en-US}}</ref> He married Narayani Amma - possibly his maternal first cousin<ref name=":2" /> - late in life, founding with her the Vengalil [[Tharavad|tharavadu]] and building its eponymous sixteen-halled [[Nālukettu|''pathinarukettu'']] in [[Panniyankara]], [[Calicut]], while his younger brother Krishnan founded the Ankarath tharavadu. His eldest daughter, Valiyammalu, married Kunhiraman, the last [[Koothali Nair]]; their only daughter Lakshmikutty married the son of Udayavarma, [[Porlathiri|Porlathiri Raja]] of [[Kadathanadu|Kadathanad]], and was mother to Indian [[Minister of Defence (India)|Defence Minister]] and ''de facto'' [[Foreign Minister of India|Foreign Minister]] [[V. K. Krishna Menon]], the Sanskritist V. Chinnamalu Amma, and the consort of [[Rama Varma XIX]], the last [[Maharaja of Cochin]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ram |first=Janaki |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PSFuAAAAMAAJ&q=raman+menon+travancore+diwan |title=V.K. Krishna Menon: A Personal Memoir |date=1997 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-564228-5 |language=en}}</ref> Another daughter, Lakshmi, married P.C.V. Manavikraman Kuttunni Thampuran, reigning [[Zamorin]] of [[Calicut (kingdom)|Calicut]] from 1915 to 1928; their daughter Kunjilakshmi married P.C. Anujan Thampuran, who succeeded his father-in-law as Zamorin, reigning from 1928 to 1931.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ayyar |first=K. V. Krishna |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oUtuAAAAMAAJ |title=The Zamorins of Calicut: From the Earliest Times Down to A.D. 1806 |date=1999 |publisher=Publication Division, University of Calicut |isbn=978-81-7748-000-9 |language=en}}</ref> His son Vengalil Raman Menon was a [[Munsif]] and father to politician [[K. B. Menon|Konnanath Balakrishna Menon]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sen |first=S. P. |url=http://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.100395 |title=Dictionary Of National Biography Vol. 3(m-r) |date=1974}}</ref> while his son Vengalil Sankara Menon was a leading South Indian lawyer, and father to famed trial lawyer K. Kunhirama Menon and [[Kalakshetra Foundation|Kalakshetra]] director K. Sankara Menon, who was [[Rukmini Devi Arundale]]'s second husband and successor.<ref name=":1" />

== References ==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Diwans of Travancore]]
[[Category:Dewan Bahadurs]]
[[Category:Diwans of Cochin]]
[[Category:Year of death missing]]

Raman Menon - Revision history

ChristinaQ73: put up new stub