#chettiars

Jems of Chettiars - Kanadukathan #chetti #chettinad #kanadukathan #chettiars #karaikudi #mansion #palace #architecture #tamilnadu #ivonmurugesan #thebangala (at Karaikkudi, Tamil Nadu, India) https://www.instagram.com/p/CklEH7kMmxl/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

We drove about 20minutes to Kottaiyur to see our third and final Chettiar mansion. This place was similar to the first two: grand covered entrance, polished stone Thinnai, carved woodwork, thick teak columns, courtyard after courtyard and pretty much vacant of life. The reason for coming to this mansion house was to see an adjoining hall and more specifically a certain type of plaster finish in that hall. The hall was long and thin, the double heighted central space was lined with plaster columns and colourful glass windows allowed light to illuminate the impressive wooden roof. The columns and floor were covered in a soft smooth sheen of egg shell plaster, leaving these surfaces notably cool to the touch, even in the hot climate and heat of the day.

The next mansion house we visited, still in Kanadukathan, was not in as a pristine condition as the first and showed signs of needing restoration. As we wandered through the house the occupancy of house sitting servants was clear to see; folded bedding against teak columns and clothes hanging in the courtyard spaces. This place was quite dark and gloomy in parts, yet similarly as impressive as the previous. We entered through the main gate, straight into a covered veranda and Thinnai. The underside of the roof pitch was impressively carved and the main front door, that it lead to, even more so. Through the door we entered onto a secondary Thinnai-area with heavy, thick teak columns, which opened onto a courtyard – as with the first mansion there were hardwearing exposed surfaces and ornate covered walkways, in decorative tile. The courtyard had a typical internally facing pitched roof, encouraging rainwater runoff to fall into water collecting vats in the courtyard. Passing through the doorway to the back of the courtyard we entered the rear of the house, a smaller courtyard space, with sunken, now dry, pool features.

The street was lined with mansion after mansion, the one we were about to enter was a huge brilliant white building, splashed with accents of blue, green and red; to enter we walked down a colourful, covered colonnade towards the main building. The main entrance door was preceded by a porch area, called a Thinnai, decked out in polished stone, with thick teak columns supporting the roof above. Through the carved, wooden door entered into a long rectangular courtyard space, where hardwearing surfaces were in solid stone and surrounding covered walkways were decorated with polished marble and granite or fancy tiles. The covered walkways were lined by carved columns in green. We walked the length of the courtyard and passed through into another smaller, more robust, courtyard. To the back were the kitchen and staff facilities. Standing to the very rear of the building, there was a clear line of sight right down to the main door, down through entrance walkway out to the very front entrance. It was interesting to observe that threshold areas were always very hard wearing and durable, whereas areas for relaxing were always ornate, in luxurious stone and nicely detailed.

After seeing the Chola bronzes in the ‘Thanjavur Royal Palace and Museum we set of from (A) Tanjore (Thanjavur). Our next desitnation was to see the abandoned mansions of the ‘Chettiars’, this included two in (B) Kanadukathan, where restoration and conservation work had been undertaken and another in (C) Kottaiyur. After a good few hours snapping away, with the cameras, in the mansions we embarked on a long drive southwardly drive to (D) Rameshwaram. An island connected to the mainland via the Indira Gandhi Bridge, the first of a series of islands stretching out towards Sri Lanka.’