[2] When he was six years of age his poor father gave up his native village and came to Thiruvattar and settled at a hamlet known as Aruvikara in the Kalkulam Taluka in the modern-day Kanyakumari District of Tamil Nadu state.

He was employed as an assistant to the Attiyara Pohtty Brahmin of Vanchiyoor, a member of the Ettara Yogam or the Council of Eight and a Half who controlled the Temple of Padmanabhapuram and a man of great power and influence.

The pleased Marthanda Varma asked the Attiyara Pohtty to let him take the young boy into his service which being permitted Ramayyan became a servant of the Maharajah of Travancore.

The entire territorial extent of Travancore state namely between the River Periyar and Cape Comorin was attained with the efforts of Ramayyan Dalawa on behalf of his King Marthanda Varma.

Although he failed to defend the invasion, Marthanda Varma managed to regain the territory by paying a huge amount to Nizam of Carnatic.

His mayali wife was given gifts and presents and special allowances from the Travancore government in recognition of his services to the state while his own descendants were bestowed with the honorific title of Dalawa.

Ramayyan Dalawa was one of the ablest and most popular ministers of Travancore and while on his death bed when asked how he would want his memory perpetuated he merely stated that he was an "instrument in the hands of my master (Marthanda Varma) and had no such ambitions."

Ward and Corner, two British surveyors who conducted a survey in erstwhile Travancore and Cochin at the beginning of 19th century observed that many Nampoothiris of Kayamkulam and surroundings migrated to northern Kerala during Ramayyan Dalawa's time.