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Common house for the joint family system practised in Kerala, India From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tharavad, or Tharavadu (Malayalam term which was originally used for the ancestral home of aristocratic Nair[1][2] families in Kerala, and which usually served as the common residence for the matrilineal joint family under the Marumakkathayam system practiced in the state.[3][4] It was classically the residence of the Jenmimar, but modern usage of the word is now more generic to all social classes and religions in Kerala.[5] The German linguist Hermann Gundert, in his Malayalam—English dictionary published in 1872, defines a Tharavadu as, "An ancestral residence of land-owners and kings", and also as, "A house, chiefly of noblemen".[6] By extension, the word refers not just to the family's house but to the extended family that shares that house. Heads of tharavadus - usually the eldest living male - were known as Karnavars, and junior members as Anandravans.
) (തറവാട്), is the
Inseparable from the traditional concept of a tharavad is, historically, Kerala's distinctive Nālukettu architectural tradition. A classic Nalukettu tharavad would be built with four halls, each with a defined purpose, and collectively enclosing a Nadumuttam, or open-air courtyard. Wealthier and more prominent tharavads would construct mansions with multiple such atria, such as the eight-halled Ettukettu, with two nadumuttams, or Pathinarukettu, sixteen-halled with four nadumuttams, and the preserve of royal families and tharavads of similar rank. Rarely, twelve-halled Pathrandukettu were constructed. with three courtyards,[7] and there is a record of a 32-halled Muppathirandukettu being erected, although it was lost to a fire soon after construction.[8]
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