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| a nalukettu veedu |
Tradition is making a comeback amongst millennials today. Fueled by the need to belong and to be part of a heritage there is a widespread revival of age-old customs across India. Coloured by sepia-toned memories and a strong sense of nostalgia, getting ‘back to our roots’ is in vogue, especially among NRIs seeking to buy properties in India.
This heightened longing for the good old days has been instrumental in bringing back many classical architectural styles, and one of them is the nalukettu veedu in Kerala.
Design of Nalukettu
Nalukettu means four blocks and a typical house built in this fashion would be divided into a north, south, east, and west block.
The naalukettu was a typical feature of the Kerala tharavadu tradition, where joint families lived together for generations with a patriarch and matriarch overseeing all their affairs. At the centre of the house is a nadumuttam, which is an open courtyard that served as the focal point of interactions between the family as well as various household activities and festivities. The larger and wealthier families had ettukettu or, the rarer, pathinaarukettu houses featured eight and 16 blocks with two and four courtyards respectively. All of these houses were built following the principles of ancient thachu shastra or the science of carpentry and developed during the 18th and 19th centuries, a time when the Nairs and Namboodiris dominated the society with their power and wealth.
These aristocratic families who prided on their lineage and the name of their tharavadu would build extensive naalukettu homes that would feature a grove with a snake mound to facilitate the popular worship of snakes, a basil leaves plant installation made of stone or brick, and even a pond for the exclusive use of the family. Naalukettus can be sprawling, entirely built on the ground floor or can go up to three storeys high.
- contents shared from internet source.
