I had the unique opportunity of visiting my sister's relative in Thanjavur and their home preserved
with all its decor from the ancient times. This house I learn is over 200 years old. I was thrilled to see
such a place and wished I could have taken more pictures but I really could not keep clicking away
pictures inside the house of people I barely knew!
However here are a few pictures I did take......
1) This was a sort of Dev Ghar soon as we entered. Don't miss the beautiful ancient Thanjavur Paintings!
I heard that the family who used to live here arranged their Navaratri Kolu in front of this. And to this
date is a "Kunt" (temple tank) shaped in the floor in front of this 'Dev ghar' !The "Laandra" ( lantern)
that are seen hanging from the ceiling are a thing from the past indeed!
2) A lot of homes in those days had a "chopala" ( a large swing) where the lady or man of the house
would take his afternoon siesta. Here is a picture of the " chopala" in this house.
with all its decor from the ancient times. This house I learn is over 200 years old. I was thrilled to see
such a place and wished I could have taken more pictures but I really could not keep clicking away
pictures inside the house of people I barely knew!
However here are a few pictures I did take......
1) This was a sort of Dev Ghar soon as we entered. Don't miss the beautiful ancient Thanjavur Paintings!
I heard that the family who used to live here arranged their Navaratri Kolu in front of this. And to this
date is a "Kunt" (temple tank) shaped in the floor in front of this 'Dev ghar' !The "Laandra" ( lantern)
that are seen hanging from the ceiling are a thing from the past indeed!
2) A lot of homes in those days had a "chopala" ( a large swing) where the lady or man of the house
would take his afternoon siesta. Here is a picture of the " chopala" in this house.
3) This is indeed a rare "Tulsi Brindavan" . Made of copper with engraved design , it is one of a kind .
Kudos to the people who preserved this peice! This was in the 'angan'(courtyard) of the house
Very quaint phots indeed. Also, thanks for reminding me of the word "लांदर", which I had heard regulary being used by my father over 50 years back. Then this word simply dropped out of our vocabulary! A clear example how from generation to generation our words get forgotten.
ReplyDeletei am very happy to see that such a big marathi community is surviving outside maharashtra.i liked remembering of foregotten marathi words.i am visiting tanjaur. can i meet some one in tanjaur to discuss about culture
ReplyDelete@Shri Ananda Rao, Thank you for your kind comments. It is true we are forgetting some words and have lost many words due to disuse. You are indeed doing a great effort in preserving this language for us!
ReplyDelete@Shri Abhimanyu, Yes we are a whole big community of Marathi speaking people and hope someday our language will be recognized at par with other Marathi dialects..like Pune Marathi, Nashik cha Marathi and Thanjavur Marathi!
ReplyDeleteI do not know anyone in Thanjavur but you can contact llklalithkrishna@gmail.com and get some contact details.
thanks for those amazing pics which makes me feel really nostalgic but the only thing missing in that photo is deer horns (harn sing) which used to be nailed to the walss of that house
ReplyDeleteI'm from Pune and stumbled upon your blogs. I salute your online efforts to document Thanajavur heritage for the posterity. Keep up the good work.भरघोस हार्दिक शुभेच्छा!
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteIam planning to visit thanjavur,i would like your suggestions/ opinions on possibilities of meeting the present chatrapathi, places to visit in and around where our heritage and culture can be learnt and i was also told that there is a place called sakka nayak street ( hope i have pronounced and spelt it right) which is being dominated by our community people and the main agenda of the visit is to trace back the lineage.
Please send me your valuable suggestions on this as you seem to be the right person and iam sure that this visit is going to be quiet an experience.
Dear pals,this `lander` is an european word.another word is `lantern`.in sm ,we call it `lantann`-a corruption of the word.in hindi,they say `lalten`.in sm another word is `kandil`.for deepaavalli akaashdeep-we also call akaash kandil.the chandelier is called `zumbar`.do you have any more dutch/portuguese/french/other european words-other than english-in your usage ? i shall give a few examples.:-saban/shabboo[ for soap];lilaav[for an auction];paav[for bread];all these are non-indian,non-marathi words.
ReplyDeletei enjoyed the photographs v.much.pl.give us more photographs.
ReplyDeleteI was in Tajore for the past few days, and my friend told me about the Tanjavur Marathi community. I got goosebumps on imagining a community that has evolved in itself, far from its roots. The best part of my life was spent in Pune, and I asked my friend to take me to a Marathi home, which I was taken. I met an 'amma', and tried to talk to her. And indeed, her Marathi was more Tamil than Marathi. I alsso read that there is a community of Marathis in Haryana, who chose to stay there after the Panipat battle. They have totally forgotten the language, and have assimilated locally. Thanjavur marathas are still distince - I believe.
ReplyDeleteDuring the time of Serfoji Maharaj's and later Saambaaji, (who ruled Thanjavur area), many Maharashtrians have stayed back in Thanjavur (Tanjore, as it then was called), and we belong to that category. Similarly, there are quite a lot of Gujarathis and Saurashtrians in Thanjavur, but, many of them have migrated to Madras (Chennai) in pursuit of employment potentials in Chennai. In Chennai, there is a famous MARATTA EDUCATIONAL FUND (MEF, for short), which conducts all the Maharashtrian functions and festivals in Marathi style! (Chaitra Durga Pooja, Vata Savithri Punev, Gudi Paadva, Chatrapathi Sivaji's Birth Day, Samartha Ramdas Navami, to name a few.). Mail me on swam0409@gmail.com if you would like to contact MEF for any further info.
Delete