[1] In Kollavarsham 901 king Rama Varma, headed to Tiruchirappalli and made a pact with the Madurai Nayaks to supply additional forces to Travancore for a fixed annual payment.
[3] In the novel, it is presented that king Rama Varma and Thirumukhathu Pilla proceed to Tiruchirappalli in Kollavarsham 901 to arrange additional forces, which later camps at Boothapandi.
[5] There are references in the novel about attempts on the life of Marthanda Varma by his enemies as his successful escapes through the groove at Panathara, the Ezhava house at Perunkadavila, and the Nedumangad fort.
According to the legends, after evading the Ettuveettil Pillas and their men at Dhanuvachapuram,[A] Eithukondamkani,[B] and Marayamuttom,[C] when Marthanda Varma was refreshing himself at a river near to Malakulangara[D] he was spotted by the men of Thambi brothers and in urgency to escape from them, he headed into a nearby Ezhava house, Alayil Puthur Veedu at Perumkadavila, where he was aided by the Kalipanikkathi (Lady Kali) to hide under the rattan enclosures.
[6] In the novel, while running away from Velu Kuruppu and his men, Marthanda Varma is helped by a mad Channan who hides him in a tree and misdirects his pursuers.
While running away from the chasers, he was suggested by a Channan plougher of the nearby field to hide inside the hollow statue of the elephant at the adjacent temple of Shasthavu.
In another occasion, when Marthanda Varma was chased by the enemies, he evaded them by hiding inside the big hole within a jack tree at the Neyyattinkara Sree Krishna Swami Temple.
The incident is referred as the attempt to murder the little prince, Karthika Thirunal Rama Varma and his mother by Ramanamadathil Pilla along with his men in Kollavarsham 903, while the mother-son duo were heading from Trivandrum to Attingal, but only to evade the attempt with the help of Kilimanoor Koithampuran (Lord of Kilimanoor), who led the duo to a nearby safe village and took their place in the palanquin en route, confronted the attackers and eventually got killed, as described in the History of Travancore from the Earliest Times by P. Shangoony Menon.
V. Nagam Aiya states the incident inline with the version by P. Shangoony Menon and mentions that lord of Kilimanoor, Kerala Varma Koithampuran as the consort of the Queen.
[10] P. K. Parameswaran Nair claims that there is a legend in which Rama Varma promises to his spouse, Abhirama to let the children she will bear, to ascend to the throne of Venad; however Dr. P. Venugopalan states that the above account of legend is not valid as Rama Varma was neither the king nor the next heir to the throne during the early days of his relationship with his spouse and he ruled the kingdom only in the last five years of his life.
[11] P. Shangoony Menon and V. Nagam Aiya state that Thambi brothers were persuaded by feudatory chiefs and nobles, Ettuveettil Pillas and Madambies to make the claim to the throne.
[12] Dewan Nanoo Pillay states that Thambi duo manifested the claim, as they felt degraded from the royal rank after the accession of Marthanda Varma, so Madambies and Ettuveettil Pillas fomented their disaffection.
[13] T. K. Velu Pillai states that Thambi brothers attempted to seize the throne for themselves against the custom of Marumakkattāyaṁ (collateral descent through maternal nephews).
The heirship claim of the Thambi brothers against the then existing custom in Venad led them to seek the aid of foreign forces to confront Marthanda Varma.
When the foreign contingent arrived under Azhagappa Mudaliyar as an aid to Thambi brothers from Pandyan governor, the Thambi duo joins them at the Nanjinadu camp to mobilize the forces; meanwhile Marthanda Varma tried to arrange necessary counter forces at Kalkulam, however as there were not enough forces to confront the contingent and men of Thambi duo, Marthanda Varma negotiated with the officers of Azhagappa Mudaliyar, lieutenant Kanimiyavu and captain Kapalipara Sokkalingam Pillai, thus secured a safe passage out of Kalkulam fort with an escort to Neyyattinkara, in order to go to Perakathavazhi at Kollam; en route, on realizing that the little prince Karthika Thirunal Rama Varma and his royal mother at Puthenkotta[H] were about to be attacked by a team led by Kudamon Pilla, Karakulathu Pilla and Vanchikoottathu Pilla, Marthanda Varma rushed there and moved the mother-son duo to Attingal and headed to Kollam.
Meanwhile, the team led by Azhagappa Mudaliyar and Thambi brothers started from Kalkulam to Thiruvananthapuram, where they tried to take the possession of treasure at Sree Padmanabha Swamy temple, but only to foil the plans by the local inhabitants, to whom the charge was entrusted by Vanchikoottathu Pilla before he moved from there.
The protests by local people made the team of Thambi brothers to retract, so Azhagappa Mudaliyar and forces headed to eastern provinces.
[28] Dalawa Arumukham Pilla was once detained by foreign forces camped at Thrikkanamkudi,[J] because the payment for them as per the agreement with the king Rama Varma was in arrears.
[32] The novel refers the Kalipankulam incident, which according to P. Shangoony Menon and V. Nagam Aiya was that the five princes who were the offspring of Umayamma Rani were murdered by men of confederates (Madampimar).
[104] Sanskrit words are extensively used in the novel, such as cētōharaṁ,[b] saṁsaṟggaṁ,[c] skandha,[d] sthaulyaṁ,[e] śiraḥkambanamandasmitādikaḷ,[f] sōmavāravrataṁ,[g] aṟddhōnmīlitaṁ,[h] khādyapēyalēhyabhōjya,[i] tējaḥpuñjaṁ,[j] aḷivr̥ndaniṟmmitaṁ,[k] tāruṇyāraṁbhaṁ[l] etc.
In the novel, Ananthapadmanabhan helps Mangoikkal Kuruppu to learn the language, and while confronted by Parukutty and her mother inside the dungeon at Chembakassery, the two men converse in Hindustani.
The novel makes a usage for the shawl used by Thirumukhathu Pilla as sālva,[ac] which is analogous to the English word and the Persian version shāl.