Nagarathars popularly called Nattukottai Chettiars
are a community of people who belong to a rural part of Tamil Nadu called
Chettinad literally translated as 'land of Chettiars'. The Chettiars owe their
strength to the numerous festivals and rituals of the community for which the
members of the clan or the family gather in temples. I proudly present my
series of paintings entitled “PARAMBARIYAM” where I have portrayed a few of the
intimate facets of the Chettiar community into which I was born and which have
caught my attention.
The houses of the Chettinad are spaces which are
built in such a way that when one stands at entrance he/she would be able to
see the backyard when all the doors are left open. So from the mugappu or
entrance to the backyard every aspect of the space with the concomitant objects
from kolams or floor designs to the beautiful tiles and keys dazzle the
eye and all are symbolically attuned to ushering in the ideals of prosperity
and abundance.
During auspicious days earmarked for festivals like
Pongal -the annual harvest festivity and for rituals like marriage, one of
the mandatory highlights of a Chettinad house is the “maakolam” or the
line drawing done using rice flour at the threshold of the house. It
is very intricately done with lines and dots. The specialty of the
maakolam is that the drawing is done with wet rice flour and the beauty of the
design is revealed almost magically as the flour dries! Maakolam requires a lot
of patience compared to the kolams done using dry rice powder. In two of the canvases I have depicted kolams drawn
during the occasions of pongal and marriage. One canvas shows the Athangudi
tiles that are used on the flooring and on walls. Also the traditional enormous
keys that are used in our community are shown. I have also painted a part of
the ‘mugappu’, the entrance with long thinnais or verandas with their pillars.
Gold may be the metal of personal adornment, but silver is the metal that
Chettiars favor for domestic, ritualistic use. Objects used in rituals like the
kuthuvelaku or lamp, ambu or spear, sangu or conch are usually made of silver
metal which I have depicted on the canvases. In all the canvases I have used
the Thanjavur painting technique of gesso work called 'mucku' in
order to create an embossed and richly encrusted surface for the varied objects
used in the Chettiar community. Chettiar heritage is rich in culture and
exquisite craftsmanship and these are the aspects that my paintings aspire to
portray not only from a personal standpoint but also to reveal the shared
cultural matrix of this historic community of people.
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