Tharavad

Tharavad (pronunciation ) (തറവാട്), is the Malayalam word for the ancestral home of aristocratic families in Kerala, which usually served as the common house for the joint family system practiced in the state.[1][2] The German linguist Hermann Gundert, in his Malayalam—English dictionary published in 1872, defines a tharavad as, "An ancestral residence of land-owners and kings", and also as, "A house, chiefly of noblemen".[3] Contemporary usage of the word is now more generic to all social classes. By extension, the word refers not just to the family's house but to the extended family that shares that house.

Not to be confused with Theravada.
1901 photograph of a Nair tharavad
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.

In the Nair Tharavads, the head of the family was known as Karnavar and the inheritance was matrilineal. In the Namboothiri Tharavads, the inheritance was patrilineal.

References
  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.
  3. Hermann Gundert (1872). A Malayalam and English Dictionary. C. Stolz. p. 434. Retrieved 15 February 2017.
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