Tharavad

Tharavad (About this soundpronunciation ) is a Malayalam word for ancestral home, usually used as the common house for the joint family system practised by Nairs, Ambalavasis, Syrian Christians and Namboothris of Kerala, India.[1][2] Hermann Gundert in his Malayalam—English dictionary published in 1872, lists tharavad as "ancestral residence of land-owners" and also as "a house, chiefly of noblemen".[3] Contemporary usage of the word is now more generic to all social classes.[citation needed]

A typical tharavad reproduced from K. M. Panikkar's article published in 1918. Capital and small letters represent females and males respectively. Supposing that the females A, B and C were dead and the oldest male member karnavar being d, if the male members t, k and others demanded partition, the property would be divided into three parts.

ReferencesEdit

  1. Kakkat, Thulasi (18 August 2012). "Kerala's Nalukettus". The Hindu. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
  2. Kunhikrishnan, K. (12 April 2003). "Fallen tharavads". The Hindu. Retrieved 13 December 2017.[dead link]
  3. Hermann Gundert (1872). A Malayalam and English Dictionary. C. Stolz. p. 434. Retrieved 15 February 2017.