The Traditional Kerala Manor

Schildt, Henri:
The Traditional Kerala Manor : Architecture of a South Indian catuḥśāla House / Henri Schildt. - Pondicherry : Institut français de Pondichéry ; Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient, 2012. - XIV, 473 S. - (Collection Indologie ; 117)
Hochschulschrift. Teilw. zugl.: Helsinki, Univ., Diss., 2004
ISBN 978-81-8470-189-0, 978-2-85539-126-7
Rs. 1400,00
DDC: 728.8095483

Beschreibung
This work describes the feudal late mediaeval high-caste Kerala house. It lays particular emphasis upon the so-called ’four-house’ mansion, called catuhśāla in Sanskrit and nālukeṭṭu in Malayalam, the vernacular of Kerala. This palatial kind of mansion is regarded as ritually ‘complete’ and, as such, appropriate - according to local Sanskrit treatises on architecture -, to the feudal clergy, royalty and aristocracy. The work describes the architecture of thirty historic houses of this type, highlighting their relation to Sanskritic architectural theory and to brahminical codes of daily life and ritual. It concludes with an attempt to present an overview of the notion of the architectural and ritual space of these houses as a microcosm. [Verlagsinformation]

Autor
HENRI WILHELM SCHILDT, Postdoctoral researcher, University of Helsinki.

Quellen: Institut Français de Pondichéry; École Française d'Extrême-Orient