India, Sri Lanka and The Maldives - Days 43 & 44 - Chettinad, Tamil Nadu

Our room key at Saratha Villas a hotel converted Chettinad Palace

Day 43 and 44

Didn’t know what Chettinad had to offer, and actually I’m not sure we are there. We are in Kothamangalam, in a beautiful Chettiar heritage property (Saratha Vilas - read about it here - its the actual property we are in)  The Chettiars in the 19th and early 20th centuries were trading through SE Asia,the in parts of the British Empire particularly Burma where they made lots of money, until they were thrown out by the Burmese, after independence, with nothing. They then went in to banking, until Indira Ghandi nationalised all the banks, without paying them any compensation. Despite having been dealt this double whammy they still seem to be wealthy people.

They are very high caste, just below Brahmin, so the 90 or so clans are now quite interbred. Our guide, (organised by the hotel, not Ranjeet who had asked Daisy to come which she’d declined as her daughter has been doing exams) Meenakshi, is a Chettiar and told us that she is married to a man 11 years older than her (obviously that is nothing!) and that he is her uncle. So her mother is her sister in law , and her grandmother her mother in law. She knows she is lucky that her children are OK and worked hard to get them both married into different clans.

The area is full of the most amazing houses, all built along the same plan of courtyards leading one from another as meeting rooms, dining halls and storage areas for the dowries that brides were sent off with. Many of the houses are now owned by the descendants of the original owners so are difficult to maintain and live in as so many people have a say in what should happen. The houses cannot be sold to non Chettiars (though they can be stripped and demolished), but they can be leased. This is what has happened to our hotel, two French architects, who themselves don’t seem to quite know how it happened are now hoteliers to this amazing property.

Just take a moment to look at the features of where we're staying as the weathly Chettinad people built their properties along similar luxurious styles. This is a typical main hall with polished marble (from Italy) floor, ornate teakwood (from Burma) ceiling and mirrors, stained glass and chandeliers from Belgium. Our room was off this huge hall

You first come in to the welcoming hall, where business would have been done by the men (women entered at the back) then into a big meeting hall or entertaining or wedding space (off of which is our room) then into an open courtyard with a tank in the middle for collecting rainwater, down the sides of which are the storage rooms for the dowries, full of furniture, brassware, enamel cook ware and such that girls were sent away with, along with shrines and birthing rooms. These rooms are effectively the bathrooms of the hotel rooms with the bedrooms being made from a divided dining hall behind. You move on through to a third hall (here used for indoor dining) before an outdoor cooking space. And here then on to the swimming pool, which obviously wasn’t original. Although we haven’t actually got the huge columns of teak wood, from Burma in our first hall, we do have the Carrera marble from Italy and the Belgian coloured glass and chandeliers. They were all made with the best of things, tiles and safes from England, glass and mirrors from Belgium, Italian marble and Burmese teak. Some of them are very dark and heavy, while some are amazingly art deco, but all built to the same basic, luxurious plan.

The front of the properties all follow a similar theme. There are 76 houses remaining in the villages and they all seem to have images of English gentlemen on them, one's with hats on at the top and others on horses

The two half day tours on day 43 and 44 have basically been looking at many of these hotels, some of which are still lived in, some not, though still used for extended family gatherings, with the family actually staying next door in a newer property (with inside bathrooms) and some converted to hotels. The Chettiars were also philanthropic building temples and schools. We did go into an amazing old, barely used temple today where the guide told Brian he could take photos, though the caretaker obviously didn’t agree with this and got very shouty.

Just inside the front door (we're looking towards the door, the main hall is behind me) is the verandah, called a Thinnai, where the men did their business. They all have this feature

The temple yesterday was very open so we could see everything, including the plaster statues of horses that are ceremonially placed in the hope that they will produce a son. There are also elephants and cows, but we can’t remember what they are hoping for. What is sad though is that as time goes by the old horses are just shoved off the edge into the undergrowth to be replaced by new ‘wishes’.

The door from the verandah to the main hall has beautifully carved features

We’ve also been to a tile factory where beautiful handmade tiles are made, on glass before being seasoned, dried in the sun and the removed from the glass. These tiles are in evidence throughout the houses we’ve visited but are also now being shipped elsewhere in India. We also went to the flea market where the ‘stuff’ from the dowry storage rooms is being sold. Much like junk/antique shops in the U.K. we could have spent ages poking about, except we didn’t want to buy anything.

This is the main hall in another house we went into. The columns are solid teak 

I’m not sure I’ve explained any of this very well, but it has actually been one of the highlights, to me, of the trip (though so hot I could barely focus). It’s just been very different.

Through from the main hall is the main courtyard. These are mostly open in the centre. Each side are small rooms used for storing the dowries of the married ladies of the family. Weddings are usually conducted in here

We finished off today’s tour, much earlier than expected, thankfully so we could come and enjoy our space and spend some time in and by the pool.

At the top, between the main hall and courtyard is this area also used for business

Tomorrow we have a one night stop in Thanjavur. We flagged the hotel we were booked in to before we left the U.K., and again a few days ago, just asking Ranjeet if he had read the reviews? It all went very quiet, after getting told that they had “assured their best services, however I am still looking into it”. As Shareef dropped us off today he told us that our hotel for tomorrow has been changed. He described it as 5 star, bookings.com as 3 star, but either way, I’m so pleased as it looks infinitely better than where we were originally. Ranjeet triumphs again!

Running down the building either side of the main courtyard and behind the dowry storage areas are these main dining areas, one for men and one for women. In some of the hotel conversions they've divided this room up into bedrooms, access through the dowry storage areas on the courtyard

Further back is another meeting area which has been converted into an indoor dining area. We didn't use this as, beyond it is an open courtyard which is a nice outdoor dining area

This is the open courtyard at the back where we ate. The mesh is to stop the monkeys getting in

Beyond that, a non-standard feature, a swimming pool. Most hotel conversions had these

This is much grander and is private (it's owned by the owner of a large cement factory in Chennai) but, apparently it follows a similar layout, albeit a bit grander. The area and houses are frequently used for filming although they have apparently caused damage in some house by chipping tiles. A film crew were hovering around outside here when we were there

And this one, built in the 1930's is an art deco style, but still the same layout inside. We went in quite a few and the luxury to which they were built is outstanding. Some are well maintained, some are decaying gracefully as the owners are business people in Malaysia or Singapore and only come home infrequently for family gatherings. They appoint caretakers who live in them and look after them. Not a bad job I suppose. Some have been demolished completely giving a very good second hand market for beautifully carved doors, solid teak columns and furniture

This is a cottage industry tile making factory

Here's our worker pouring in a coloured mortar mixture into a mould on top of a sheet of glass

He takes the mould out, fills the remaining cavity with a dry sand and cement mix, turns it over and there's a tile. Its left for three days in water and 7 in the sun and its done

Here's one they did earlier. They sell for between 50 and 75 Rupees each (50p to 75p)

Lots of different designs

Next we visited a temple - another temple, but quite amazing

Our guide said I could take photos, so I snapped away. Lovely place, big with an interesting layout

This is the Hindu god Shiva sitting on the bull known as Nandi. This one is encased in solid silver. At this point a priest or temple warden went off on one with our guide as I took this. He clearly was upset at me photographing it, but our guide, a local brushed it off and said not to worry. We could hear him go off moaning to others about it, but our guide just carried on. I had no wish to offend, but was told it was OK, so I did. Thought you might like to see the photo that caused the trouble

We visited a local snack making 'factory'. Yummy snacks, we sample and then bought some which we ate with a bottle of beer later. Nearly put us off dinner, but not quite!

So back to the hotel to try out the pool. It was about 38 C outside so the pool was a welcome escape from it. Absolutely no problem in getting in as is normal when getting into a cooler pool. It was straight in and oh so refreshing!

And later, dinner  at the hotel. All local traditional Chettinad food. We've got Chapatti, tomato rice, onion rata, spicy raw banana, sauteed cauliflower, pumpkin curry and emperor fish curry. Absolutely delicious. And you can just see, bottom right our huge room key. It's been a really interesting couple of days here. The post may not have inspired you much if you're not into architecture, but we found the whole story of the history of the influential Chettinad people and how they suffered a double blow of losing property in Burma after Independence and then their banking businesses on nationalisation in the 1970's, but still bounced back, shows them to be a very resourceful people. Apparently the British held them in high regard when they were here using them for loans and banking. We felt quite sorry for them and it added to our visit with our guide being a Chettinar personally involved in its history. That's it for now, Thanjavore tomorrow, famous for brass making. What will we find out there?