RSP 2018

UDAiyalUR | TAMIL NADU | INDIA

Semester 03

Prof. Srinivas SG

Prof. Nagesh HD

Asst. Prof. Shreyas Baindur

Asst. Prof. Anjali Sharma v

The word “Agraharam” literally means “the higher ground”, it has various etymological meanings. It indicates conglomeration(haram) of the first among four varnas(castes). Agraharam also indicates cluster of houses with a temple on the agram(extreme tip) of the street. An Agraharam is a grant of land and royals income from it, typically by king or noble family to religious purposes, particularly brahmins. It is usually the center of the village where the brahmins lived. (As the agraharams belonged to brahmins they were elevated as it was believed that would depict their elevated stature in society.)

The agarharam were constructed according to its own principles of architecture. Each house opened out into the street, each had a vasal-thinnai, rezhi, thazhvaram, adukkalai and kottil. They have small inner courtyards, which provide adequate daylight to the house.

During the Maratha reign in Thanjavur, many agarharams were attached to the chatrams, established by the rulers.

In 1765 a chatram* was built in the name of Rajakumaramba Bayi, the second wife of Tulaja II. In 1777 an agaraharam was built attached to chatram in Chakravarambapuram.

There were 24 houses, 12 of which were destroyed in fire. Sulakshanamba Bayi donated lands to the chatram established in her name and the yield of 3,000 kalams of paddy from these lands, was shared among the 30 families in the agraharam.

In addition to these agarharams attached to chatrams, agarharams were established elsewhere too, sometimes as a gift to ministers. One such kind of agarharam in Udaiyalur.

Land Reform Act was implemented in 1970s, where the land was taken away from people, only the ones who tilled the land retained it, the ones who owned the land and had the workers work for them retained it, but the produce produced was divided equally between the tiller and the owner. This means that this Agraharam has been existing from almost 10 generations.

Udaiyalur initially was renowned as ‘Boopathirajapuram’ or ‘Sri Kanteyapuram’. Similar to all the other agraharams Udaiyalur was also owned by Brahmins.

Brahmins found a way to survive through their intellect and made workers work because water was abundant. Since then, they got into agriculture and settlement was necessary to control the produce.

The plots were divided depending on the plateau.

Houses shared a common wall, this would be to make lateral expansion of a house impossible, it enhanced social interaction among the residents. The roof of all the houses are inclined at an angle of approximately 30degrees. And the houses are made of clay tiles, flat tiles and pot tiles, which helps in cooling of the house.

Every house had a thinnai where elders would sit and the children would play hide and seek. Hide and seek seemed like an ideal game to play in Agraharam. The doors of all the houses would be open throughout the day, children would find umpteen hiding places (wooden barrels, behind the wooden chests or lofts), which implies anybody who lives in Agraharam could walk into each other’s houses anytime. This shows the social bonding between people.

The Agraharam seemed to be an open society i.e., welcoming, because of which we could do our measure drawings.

The house was basically divided into thinnai, storage area, living space, utility and backyard (well was either in the utility or the yard).

“Nothing happens within an Agraharam which is not sooner or later brought to the knowledge of the entire community.” One of the ways in which news in the village travels in the Agraharam is from one thinnai to another.

The climate- The warmest month of the year is May, with an average temperature of 31.8 °C. December has the lowest average temperature of the year. It is 25.0 °C. The difference in precipitation between the driest month and the wettest month is 221 mm. During the year, the average temperatures vary by 6.8

°C. The eaves project to street and keeps the interior of the house i.e., thinnai cool, also avoids the glare from the sun.

No house in udaiyalur has first floor. This is because of belief that if a house is higher than the nearby Amman temple, then the family that has built such a structure will be ruined. Udaiyalur Agraharam is quiet, because most of the people are away for field or the tile factory established few years ago near the village. Not much of youngsters are seen in the village, many people are senior citizens, who have come back to their ancestral village.

Most of the houses have retained their period look, with their wooden pillars surrounding the courtyard, hick wooden doors with brass knobs, carved lintels and cavernous lofts. The houses here have carved Burma teak cots, swings, wooden barrels to store grains in wooden ladle holders. Residents of Udaiyalur have not given up their antiques to determined collectors.

The total geographical area of village is 485.07 hectares. Udaiyalur has a total population of 3,156 people. There are about 798 houses in Udaiyalur village, Kumbakonam town of Thanjavur district.

As we had observed the village map on Google as a pre-visit exercise, we had an idea of the village to be a grid with quadrants. It was also noticed that small stretches of houses similar to those within the quadrants flanked them to the north, north-west and the south-east. (as shown in the sketch)

Unless lik the compound walls these houses had element... so called interactions with the streets.The THINNAI which ser es as a space in house allow interactions between the people inside, and the people outsideTher small por tion o THINNAI wher the houseowner sits and interact with people.

Befor entering the living space, ther is small buffering space between the main door and the inner door which actually shows us the linear axis the house which leads us om the front ar o the street the living area, the well area, cattle area, ackyard, ack door and o the next street.

They wer not any bed spaces they had oom o stor grains, And the access the kitchen om the living space.

The lights and the shadows er alanced by the cour tyards and lowering the oo This house had a window the kitchen which allows us o peep through the cour tyar wher could see who coming inside the house Unlik the angular kingpost Queen post trusses this truss was different they hav sor ed out the balancing truss by breaking the length the truss they ere many nish in the walls o the living area (THAL ARAM)

The kitchen has little cour tyar wher the light enter and lights up the kitchen (samayal oodam) There is well in the second cour tyar wher it' old that the cattles would be tied And the thir ar o the house is the backyar which goes on and connects the street between the agrahara and the slum alking about the materiality they hav used burnt clay bricks lime plaster pot tile oofing, amboo oofing Burma eak ose wood.

The ser ed areas ar always in higher plinth due the flood precations.Thinnai thalavaram kitchen granar This house had covered the truss from below and made as attic space.

Sectional View Plan View Roof Plan View