Her Highness
Aswathi Thirunal Gowri Lakshmi Bayi

About

Aswathy Thirunal Gowri Lakshmi Bayi (born 1945) is an Indian writer from Kerala and a member of the Travancore Royal Family. She has ten books to her credit. Aswathy Thirunal is the niece of the last King of Travancore, Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma. She was educated at home by Anglo-Indian tutors along with her siblings. After finishing school, she attended the Government College for Women, Thiruvananthapuram, graduating with a degree in economics in 1966.
Aswathi Thirunal has written on subjects such as the temples of Travancore and Kerala temple architecture, as well as three collections of English poems, numerous articles in newspapers, and books on the culture and heritage of India — 13 books in total. Some of her important works are: The Dawn (1994), Kerala Temple Architecture: Some Notable Features (1997), Sree Padmanabha Swamy Temple (1998), Thulsi Garland (1998), The Mighty Indian Experience (2002), Budhadarśanaṃ: lēkhanaṅṅaḷ (2007), Glimpses of Kerala Culture (2011), Rudrakshamala (2014) and An Amateur's Attempt at Poetry (2018). According to critics, the book Sree Padmanabha Swamy Temple published in 1998, considered a comprehensive work on the ancient temple, is extremely popular and has run into several editions. The book was translated into Malayalam by K. Shankaran Nambuthiri and K. Jayakumar. Her latest book is History Liberated - The Sree Chithra Saga.