About dakshinhitra-

Dakshinchitra is an exciting cross cultural living museum of art, architecture, lifestyles, crafts
and performing arts of South India.

With the magic of visionaries like Laurie Baker and master architects like Benny Kuriakose the
once a barren land, has transformed into a beautiful landscape of trees, stone walkways,
Amphitheater and an adobe to 18 adorable homes.

Their vision is to inspire people to new ways of looking at South India's cultural traditions and
their connections to the present and to the future.

divided into four sections representing four south indian states I.e

 TAMIL NADU
 KERALA
 KARNATAKA
 ANDRA PRADESH

All the houses bought and reconstructed at DakshinaChitra had been given for demolition by their
owners.

The authentic homes in a regional vernacular style are purchased, taken down, transported and
reconstructed by artisans ( Stapathis) of the regions from where the houses came.

The artefacts in the museum reflect the daily life in the Southern States.

Tamilnadu-

• Merchants house chettinad, pudukottaidt.

Kerala-

• Hindu house, tiruvananthapuram dt.

• Hindu house, mankavu, Kozhikode dt.

• The granary, kuthattukulam, kottayam dt.

• Syrian Christian house, puthupally,kottayam dt.

Tamilnadu-

• Agraharam Brahmin house, tamilnadu street

• Exihibition of religious art

• Art gallery of retrospectives

• Temple chariot

• Agriculturist’s house,thanjavur dt.

• Textile exhibition hall

• Weaver’s house,kanchipuram

• Potter’s house ,Chengalpattu dt.

• Basket weaver’s mud houses,Tiruvallur dt.

• Village ayyanar shrine

Karnataka –

• Chikmagalur muslim house,

• Weavers houses iikal, bangalkote dt.

Andhra Pradesh -

• Ikkat house

Tamil Nadu Houses

 has varied topography including-
sandy beaches on one side,
the Nilgiri Mountains on other side and
a semi-arid plane in between.
 Wood was scarce in the planes and hence the common houses are constructed using a
minimum amount of wood.
 One of the characteristic of Tamil homes is that they are clustered.

Brahmin house-

 This Brahmin house has been relocated from Ambur village, an agricultural village in the
South of Tamil Nadu.
 This type of Brahmin house is prevalent throughout the villages and towns of the Tirunelveli
area.
 Brahmin houses in the various regions of Tamil Nadu differ slightly in style, technique and
materials, depending on their location.
 They are almost always connected by a common wall and tend to be narrow in width and
very long.
  They are often without an interior courtyard,
 have open spaces in the back.
 A clear storey on the roof provides light and fresh air for many agraharam homes with flat
roofs.
 Brahmin house were connected by a common wall and they were naroow in width and very
long .
 The amber house originally had a loner courtyard for cows, followed by another lon
enclosed area, planted rather widly, which led down to a stepped river embarkment.
 Due to space restrictions at dakshinchitra, the second courtyardwas made smaller and third
has been oriented.
 The upper floor was used for sleeping, drying, and storing grain.

Next we entered into a street resembling the Brahmin Agraharam from Ambur village of Thirunelveli
district. Agraharam is a set of clustered houses- mostly around 30 or 40 - situated on both sides of a
street and it may have a temple at one end of the street.

The Agraharam recreated at DakshinaChitra was a “Vishnu Agraharam” with a shrine of Loard
Vishnu at one end of the street. The houses in Agraharam are two storied but without an inner
courtyard. Light and ventilation was obtained through the small windows just below the second roof
(Also known as clerestory). The rooms in the upper floor was used for sleeping, drying grains and
storage.