42
kunṛavar,[1] kūḷiyar,[2] kolaiñar,[3] śavarar,[4] śilavar,[5] śillar,[6] tiyar,[7] pullar,[8] pulaiñar,[9] maṛavar,[10] marudar,[11] vēḍar,[12] showing how widespread that profession was. They were also employed as policemen, armed with the bow and the sharp arrow.[13]
Towns and Villages: Houses
Round the Kōṭṭai where the king resided, grew the pēṭṭai,[14] (from pē,[15] vulgar, whence is derived pēdai,[16] common people, the poor, pēy,[17] the wild plant, also goblin). Naturally the followers of each trade gravitated towards each other and each principal profession was confined to a single pēṭṭai; there were thus many suburbs around a town, separated from each other. These pēṭṭais were each surrounded by rice-fields or gardens. There are many words to indicate a house, such as vīḍu,[18] agam,[19] il,[20] illam,[21] śērbu,[22] pātti,[23] manai,[24] vayin,[25] besides the compound words uṛaiyuḷ[26] and pukkiḷ.[27] The houses of richer men were called māḍam[28] (whence perhaps māḍi,[29] upper story) or māḷigai[30] from the root māḷ,[31] great. They were built almost entirely of timber up to about twelve centuries ago. The following words relating to parts of a house may be noted: iṛappu,[32] iṛai,[33] vaḷavu,[34] tāḻvāram,[35] sloping roof; munṛil,[36] muṛṛam,[37] courtyard, inside or outside a house; the compound word nilāmuṛṛam,[38] a flat roof on which one can walk up and down; uttiram,[39] tūlam,[40] beam suṛṛuvāri,[41] tāḻ,[42] tuḍai,[43] mugaḍu,[44] viḍaṅgam,[45] beam projecting beyond a wall. In front of the houses was the tiṇṇai[46] a raised and covered platform, which served the purposes of a drawing-room and bed-room for the day and even for the night. Before the tiṇṇai, was the kuṛadu,[47] open platform, flanked by the oṭṭuttiṇṇai.[48] The walls, the tiṇṇai and the floor of the house were no doubt polished like a mirror or black-marble, the cement being compounded of clay, charcoal and cattle-dung, maṇ,[49] kari,[50] and śāṇi,[51] and applied to the surface wet and rubbed over for hours with a bit of flattened quartz, an art which is fast dying out. The entrance to the house was not flush with street, as there was a vāyilpaḍi,[52] door-step. It was provided with a wooden frame work, nilai,[53] and a door, kadavu,[54] also called araṇam,[55] aravam,[56] kāppu,[57] tōṭṭi,[58] pudavu,[59] vāri,[60] secured by a wooden bolt and heavily carved outside, as they are even to-day in houses not ruined by modern civilization. The houses were provided with windows, śālaram,[61] śannal,[62] palagaṇi,[63] being, as the name implied, a many-eyed lattice window. Behind the door ran a narrow passage, iḍazkaḻi,[64] or naḍai,[65] which led into the house. The houses were provided with
- ↑ குன்றவர்.
- ↑ கூனியர்.
- ↑ கொகாஞா.
- ↑ சவார்.
- ↑ சிலவர்.
- ↑ சில்லர்.
- ↑ (
Tamil characters)
- ↑ 8
- ↑ 9
- ↑ 10
- ↑ 11
- ↑ 12
- ↑
கூர்நல் அம்பின் கொடுவில் கூளியர்.
Malaipaḍukaḍām, 422.
- ↑ (Tamil characters)
- ↑ 15
- ↑ 16
- ↑ 17
- ↑ 18
- ↑ 19,
- ↑ 20
- ↑ 21
- ↑ 22
- ↑ 23
- ↑ 24
- ↑ 25
- ↑ 26
- ↑ (Tamil characters). The houses of Brāhmaṇas were given the Sanskrit name of Aharam ((Tamil characters)) and the street where they lived akkirāhāram ((Tamil characters).)
- ↑ (Tamil characters)
- ↑ 29
- ↑ 30
- ↑ 31
- ↑ 32
- ↑ 33
- ↑ 34
- ↑ 35
- ↑ 36
- ↑ 37
- ↑ 38
- ↑ 39
- ↑ 40
- ↑ 41
- ↑ 42
- ↑ 43
- ↑ 44
- ↑ 45
- ↑ 46
- ↑ 47
- ↑ 48
- ↑ 49
- ↑ 50
- ↑ 51
- ↑ 52
- ↑ 53
- ↑ 54
- ↑ 55
- ↑ 58
- ↑ 57
- ↑ 58
- ↑ 59
- ↑ 60
- ↑ 61
- ↑ 62
- ↑ 63
- ↑ 64
- ↑ 65
