The mansions are categorised under various chapters that trace the pattern of their growth and embellishment — from simple architecture with rounded thinnais (verandahs) to carved masterpieces that were prevalent from 1900 to 1930. By Ankita Jain
Intricately-carved teak pillars of ethereal fineness, latticed metal grills, Ming vases, Delft pottery and painted cherubs breathe in the grand houses that still stand in the barren landscape of Chettinad. Once the home of nobles and rich merchants, history has forever invested it with prosperity that shines through generations.
Meenakshi Meyyappan’s Mansions of Chettinad: Early Splendours, Climax, New Directions documents a history which has been resurrected by the scions as tourist homes or museum attractions. It is replete with exquisite photographs by Bharath Ramamrutham, text by George Michell and published by Graf. While it records the houses built by the Nattukottai Chettiars over a span of 150 years in a cluster of villages that offer little by way of natural beauty other than scattered palms and dry weather, the book also documents what remains of the life and times of a community that prospered far from Indian shores but always returned to live in the country they called home. “About 30 well-preserved Chettinad mansions have made it to the book,” said Bharath Ramamrutham, one of India’s leading architectural, landscape and travel photographers.
Bharath and George have been working together since 1992 for various projects. And when one of George’s friends suggested that the mansions of Chettinad had to be studied, photographed and written about as they are under threat of demolition, they visited Chettinad.
On their field visits, Bharath had seen some of the most opulent houses, some with a hundred and more rooms, replete with Burma teak, Venetian glasses, stained glass panels made in England, imported marble tiles and chandeliers. The architecture ranged from European to neoclassical, tweaked with local sensibilities. local tiles were used for the ceilings and for the floors, handmade Attangudi tiles were the norm. “Every Chettinad mansion, no matter its scale, had an East-West alignment,” he pointed out. “There was a marked transition from public to private spaces and between the male and female areas. So, it isn’t unusual to find majestic roads approaching the mansions, elaborate entrances, intricately-carved front doors, the all-important thinnais (verandahs) where business was conducted, spectacular interior halls with double height ceilings, painted wooden ceilings as well as austere interior spaces where guests were not allowed and large kitchens which were bereft of any aesthetics. It is also the reason why walkways within the mansions were done in granite stones instead of plush imported marble or the decorative Attangudi tiles,” he further elaborated.
Primarily traders of salt and pearls at coastal Poompuhar during the Chola era, the Chettiar community moved inland, living in villages laid out in grids. With the spread of colonialism, and unconfined by geography and taboo, they sailed the seas to become rich money lenders, landowners and traders in the remote outposts of Burma, the Malay Peninsula, Indo-China, Ceylon and Borneo. “This was when they built their ostentatious mansions, often identified by a bewildering set of initials engraved on the doorways that indicated the paternal lineage of the owner,” he added.
With the fall of South-East Asia to the invading Japanese during World War II, the Chettinad expatriate dream was largely extinguished. Burmese nationalism, insurgencies in Malaya, war in Indo-China and socialism in Ceylon further eroded the economic foundations of this affluent community. And the mansions that once stood as proud markers of wealth turned silent sentinels to be discovered only by travellers who had steered off course, or pillaged by antique hunters who descended on them in hordes.
“If we cannot safeguard their survival, we can at least document these homes built in a manner and style seen in no other place in the world,” he said.
Bharath, whose bespoke publishing company has brought out the book, shared, “It took me three years to photograph these mansions. As an architect, I was struck by their eclectic nature, about how time has stood still in these places.” He has literally left his footprints in the dust of these ghost towns — he had to scrub and clean some of the houses before capturing them in his camera. “We always went with a team of five-six people, as most of the mansions required cleaning,” he smiled. Adding quickly, he said, “There were also few of them which were well looked after. All of them follow the architecture of a traditional Tamil house, beginning with the thinnai, going through a naduvaasal and ending with the moonramkattu. Most of them, however, had so many disparate elements, some of them kitschy. Chandeliers from Murano, Venetian mirrors, painted tin ceiling panels from England — it was an unbiased collection from all over that came together so well,” he said.
Though the Chettiars kept a meticulous record of their financial transactions, the photographer elaborated, “There is practically no information about the designers of the mansions or anything pertaining to them.”
“So many of these houses have gone to rack and ruin, because they now belong to multiple owners who have moved abroad or live in cities and can longer afford to maintain them. Those who can, visit during temple festivities or occasions such as weddings. But with poor electricity supply, there are hardly any permanent residents,” he added.
The photographs also capture interior narratives in the rooms beyond these fabled exteriors. In the final chapter, you can almost hear the last sigh of some of the houses that are dilapidated and abandoned. The 300-page tome draws attention to a way of life that may soon pass into the pages of a history book.
Bharath, who has published 23 books driven by his own photography and is currently working on Hampi and the houses of Goa, said, “The imperial town of Vijaynagar, for instance, has the most extraordinary granite landscapes in Asia.”
He further added, “It’s important to propagate good architecture by documenting good architecture of the past,” he said.
Since a couple of years, the footfalls for Chettinad have drastically increased. Besides food and feasting that are an integral part of Chettinad life, much focus is on the architectural history of the place. “Many of the Chettinad mansions have turned hotels which offers real cuisine of the Nagarathar Chettiars who were originally vegetarians and given their overseas trade links perfected the blend of local and the global in their food,” concluded Bharath Ramamrutham.
The book was launched at Oxford Bookstore