Investigating the residents’ attitude towards the preservation of palatial houses built heritage in Chettinad region, Tamil Nadu

ABSTRACT

The Chettinad region of India is unique as one of the few places where evidence of Dravidian architecture exists. At the same time, Dravidian influenced palatial houses in the region are being dismantled and destroyed, fuelling a lucrative trade in their architectural elements as they are exported to western countries and sold on the antiquities market. This study explores Chettinad house owners’ attitudes towards the palatial houses. The main objectives of this study are as follows: (1) To explore what architectural preservation and/or rehabilitation is underway in Chettinad villages and (2) To assess palatial house owners’ attitudes towards architectural heritage preservation. The results of this research show that the owners of these houses are enthusiastic about architectural preservation, but that a number of barriers stand in the way of palatial house preservation. This article ends with recommendations on how the community might come together to preserve this important built heritage.

KEYWORDS:

• Built heritage
• Chettinad region
• economic pressure
• palatial houses
• preservation

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all the palatial house owners of the five surveyed villages who patiently participated and listened to all our questionnaires and opened up their perceptions. We thank ArcHe-S for providing the valuable information of Chettinad region. We are also grateful to the two anonymous Journal of Community Archaeology and Heritage reviewers and editor for their productive work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Seetha Rajivkumar is a part-time PhD researcher at Department of Architecture, National Institute of Technology Tiruchirappalli. Her work focuses on developing the area as one sample where local built heritage is appreciated, conserved and enhanced for the benefit of the local community and future generations. She is currently working as head of the architecture department in the Adhiyaman College of Engineering, Hosur, India.

Thirumaran Kesavaperumal is associate professor of Architecture Department at National Institute of Technology Tiruchirappalli. Thirumaran has carried out conservation research in the heritage town of Tamilnadu since 2010. His primary interests are the Built heritage conservation in the urban settings of heritage towns. Currently, seven research scholars are doing their research works under his guidance. His research is multi-disciplinary, and his projects are contributing to the architectural heritage of the specific areas and the local communities.

ORCID

Thirumaran Kesavaperumal http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6242-9441

Notes

1 Nagarathar is Tamil merchants’ community, also known as Nattukottai Chettiars (Price 1996).

2 Vastu is Hindu tradition of space design to promote harmony with natural forces, similar to feng shui. The ancient wisdom of vastu is used to design interiors that take positive advantage of the power of space (retrieved from http://www.dictionary.com/browse/vastu).

3 The tiles are handmade and have traditional patterns as design. It is durable and eco-friendly.

4 Saanthu kalavai is a combination of limestone powder (as the main ingredient), gallnut (as stimulator), Egg's white-yolk (as smoothing agent) and palm tree Jaggery (as binding agent).