Acknowledgements


This effort would not have been possible without the help of a huge number of people.  I am indebted to:  
  • The British Library - London, The U.K. : The Archivists and the Support Staff there were always extremely helpful.
  • The National Archive of Torre do Tombo,Lisbon, Portugal.
  • The Nationaal Archief, The National Archives of the Netherlands, The Hague.
  • The National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland.
  • The Kerala State Archives, Trivandrum, Kerala, India.
  • Nick Balmer, The U.K.
  • Dr. Kenneth and Joyce Robbins, Maryland, USA.
  • Sandy Mitchel, Scotland.
  • Hector Munro, Chief, The Munro Clan, Foulis Castle, Scotland.
  • Dr. Hugo K.S Jacob.
  • Anjana Singh, Leiden, Netherlands.
  • Mark De Lennoy, Leiden, Netherlands.
  • Pablo Cools, Portugal.
  • Antonio Alves, Lisbon, Portugal.
  • Yesudas Rajamoni.
  • Sidharth Kallur, Professional Photographer and dear friend.
  • Cochin Royal Family Historical and Heritage Society.
 
I want to thank everyone who came as invited speakers for the annual Symposiums held at Tripunithura, sponsored by the Cochin Royal Family Historical and Heritage Society.

I extend my sincere gratitude and appreciation to my family:  Vallia Thampuran, V.T.K. Trust, P.A.B, The Community Kitchen Volunteers, all the Kovilakams. I appreciate and thank many for their consistent and steadfast support:  R.T Ravi Varma(Seeri Chettan), Ravi Achan, Kochamani Oppa, my brother Kelappan, who was as interested as I was, in the history of our family; Vaneja, Ramabhadran, Sangamesan, Rameshan, Arun and many others who have given me and this project, their very valuable time and efforts right from the beginning; Vinay, Vijay and Raghu who helped me with their technological skills and showed lots of farsight and Vijayan Menon, my loyal friend.

A special thanks to my sisters, my brother Rajan, my cousins, the nephews and nieces of Ikkamma Thampuran Kovilakam, without whom I could not have held a single Symposium.  Thank you for standing by me throughout this journey. I have experienced only warmth and co-operation from all the younger generations of the Cochin Royal Family whose paths I have crossed.

I would also like to thank Kavita, Ammini and Saritha for their valuable input and my Editor, Niranjana, who came in from the cold at the very last-minute and took the job on, fearlessly.

I had a fantastic support system from Chirayil Infotech Pvt. Ltd., who guided us in every way and helped build a website that I am proud of.

All of my love and thanks, goes to my wife Usha, my life partner for the last 50 years, for her dedicated effort towards publishing this website.

Kocha Varma