Diwan Bahadur Palakkal Raman Menon Dalawa Mannadinayar (also Palakkad Raman Menon and Ankarath Raman Menon)[1] was Dewan of Travancore, serving Maharani Gowri Lakshmi Bayi, and then Maharani Gowri Parvati Bayi during their successive regencies for Maharaja Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma, from 1815 to 1817,[2][3][4] and Dalawa of Travancore thereafter, holding auxiliary office as Fouzdar.
[10] 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.
[11] 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.
Menon was born to Narikkode Kunjulakshmi Amma and Kunjunni Thampuran of the Mankada kovilakam of the Velattiri royal family of Valluvanad.
His eldest daughter, Valiyammalu, married Kunhiraman, the last Koothali Nair; their only daughter Lakshmikutty married the son of Udayavarma, Porlathiri Raja of Kadathanad, and was mother to Indian Defence Minister and de facto Foreign Minister V. K. Krishna Menon, the Sanskritist and feminist V. Chinnamalu Amma, and the consort of Rama Varma XIX, the last Maharaja of Cochin.