Chettinad Heritage Festival opens doors of 100-year-old mansions and rich cultural traditions

Vanga Vanga Vanga! Welcomed the hosts as they let the guests into their beautiful and sprawling Chettinad mansions during the recently held Chettinad Heritage Festival. The Chettiar community opened not just their mansion but their hearts too to 180 people who had gathered in Chettinad from different parts of the country and abroad.

Built and owned by the affluent and hardworking mercantile traders — Nattukottai Chettiars of Tamil Nadu — these mansions spread across 76 villages in Pudukottai, Pasumpom Muthuramalingam and Sivaganga districts, once bustled with life. “Everything from birth to marriage to death happened within these valavus. As a bride, all my ceremonies happened in this courtyard only,” said Visalakshi, who owns the S A House, Kanadukathan, with her husband, Annamalai. Valavus were the large inner courtyard that was the core of the house. These courtyards were the witnesses and the participants as well to every ceremony and milestone of Chettiar life. The Chettinad Heritage Festival is an earnest effort to showcase a slice of Chettinad culture — its unique architecture, traditions, life and food—to the world.

“Chettinad is a wonderful place to visit, but there is very little awareness of it. We want this festival to bring people from outside to discover the richness of this region and spread the word around. Chettinad has mansions that were built 100-150 years ago because there's no source of income in Chettinad, so everyone moved out, and the mansions now lie vacant. They are neglected and beginning to crumble. So the other objective is to get tourists through tourism and create avenues of income. That can renew interest in maintaining these mansions,” emphasises  M Meyyappan, who, along with his entire family, stands behind his mother, Meenakshi Meyyappan, to put together the Chettinad Heritage Festival year after year.

Meenakshi Meyyappan, 92, fondly known as “Achi” by everyone, has played a pivotal role in putting Karaikudi, a charming city in the Sivaganga district of Tamil Nadu, on the tourist map. In 1999, she was probably the first person in Karaikudi to convert her 100-year-old mansion, the Bangla, into a luxury heritage hotel known today for serving an authentic Chettinad experience.

For the festival, Meenakshi Meyyappan curates a line-up of stellar music and dance concerts, talks, temple visits, fashion shows and exhibitions. As these events take place in Chettiar mansions, guests are able to see the magnificence of these structures and understand their significance. For instance, designer Vivek Karunakaran’s fashion show showcasing his collection ‘Idam’ and his installation ‘Adayalam’ was showcased at Chidamabara Vilas in Kadiyapatti.

The venue of the show, Chidambara Vilas, is a 118-year-old heritage Chettiar home that has been converted into a resort.

Dr Pradeep Chakravarthy, historian and author who leads guided tours at Sathyagireeshwar Siva Temple, a unique temple with rock cut shrines dedicated to Lord Shiva and Vishnu, and the then Tirupathi Tiruvengadamudaiyan (Regarded as the southern Tirupati with lovely frescoes) in Ariyakudi, expressed, “Chettiar families still maintain a convention which many other communities don't, which is all their life cycle rituals, especially weddings and some part of the death ceremony is conducted in their ancestral home. Therefore, there is still some connection and to come back to their heritage, which is why people at least once a year, somewhere or the other, for the ancestor worship or for the wedding, their homes would be reopened and used.”