Ramavarma was born in a small village in Alappuzha district of the south Indian state of Kerala to Vellarappilli Kerala Varma and Raghavaparambil Ambalika Thamburatti. He lost his father at an early age and his education in the traditional gurukula way, was supervised by his uncle, which was followed by formal education at the Sanskrit School as well as Cherthala English School. He started writing poetry while in school, publishing the first poem in "Swarat" magazine, which he continued after discontinuing education after 9th standard and published poems in periodicals such as "Arunodayam" and "Chakravalam". He started a weekly in 1951, under the name, Janadhipathyam, but the weekly, which published articles promoting communist ideals, did not last long. Subsequently, he served as the editor of a publication from Madras. Ramavarma married Puthekovilakathu Chandramathi Thamburatti in 1951 but the couple were issueless. Subsequently, he married Bharathi Thamburatti, the younger sister of Chandramathi Thamburatti, and the couple had a son, Vayalar Sarath Chandra Varma, a noted poet and lyricist, and three daughters, Indulekha, Yamuna and Sindhu. His death came on October 27, 1975, at the age of 47, following a surgery at the Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram where he had been admitted for the treatment of Cirrhosis. Later revelations by poet, Ezhacherry Ramachandran, that the actual cause of death was medical negligence, created a controversy, but Reamachandran later refused to stand by his earlier statement. The memoirs of his wife, Bharathi Thamburatti, titled Indradanussinte Theerathu, also became controversial due to certain remarks made in the book about K. J. Yesudas.