Lakshmi Bayi in 1901 he was appointed the guardian of her two grandnieces, the Senior and Junior Ranis of Travancore, including Maharani Sethu Lakshmi Bayi. He died in a car accident in September 1914. At that time, cars were rare in India, and only rich people like him had cars. According to the sources, Kerala Varma was going to Vaikom Mahadeva Temple with his nephew and disciple A. R. Rajaraja Varma, another great scholar, called as 'Kerala Panini'. On the way of return, he stayed at Ananthapuram Palace, Haripad. The next day, while going to Thiruvananthapuram, his car got crashed, and he succumbed to his injuries two days later. People from various spheres mourned his death. He was cremated with full state honours at his home in Changanassery. Literary works Kerala Varma was in close touch with literary movements in both northern and southern parts of Kerala, including Bhashaposhini Sabha and magazines such as Vidya Vinodini and Malayala Manorama. His work Abhijnana Sakunthalam(1898), a translation of Kalidasa's Sakunthalam, is one of the most acclaimed works of poetry in Malayalam from that period. It influenced a number of other translations of Sanskrit classics into Malayalam and was a success on the stage. The subsequent spate of translations from English and Sanskrit into Malayalam was an important feature of Malayalam literature in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He has also written Mayoorasandesham (also spelt Mayura Sandesam; 1894) on the line of Kalidasa's MeghaDooth(aka Meghaduta). In this poetry he has used the peacocks of Haripad temple to send his messages to his wife, the Maharani, in Trivandrum. His celebrated work Visakhavijaya was written after his release by Visakham Thirunal. See also Muloor S. Padmanabha Panicker References Travancore State Manual by Velu Pillai Visakhavijaya- A Study by Poovattoor Ramakrishna Pillai Indian male poets Malayalam poets Malayalam-language writers Indian Sanskrit scholars Translators of Kalidasa 1845 births 1914 deaths Companions of the Order of the Star of India Travancore royal family Road incident deaths in India 19th-century Indian poets 20th-century Indian poets People from Changanassery Poets from Kerala 19th-century Indian translators 20th-century Indian translators