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.
- ↑ தீயர்.
- ↑ புல்லர்.
- ↑ புலைஞர்.
- ↑ மறவர்.
- ↑ மருதர்.
- ↑ வேடர்.
- ↑
கூர்நல் அம்பின் கொடுவில் கூளியர்.
Malaipaḍukaḍām, 422.
- ↑ பேட்டை.
- ↑ பே.
- ↑ பேதை.
- ↑ பேய்.
- ↑ வீடு.
- ↑ அகம்.
- ↑ இல்.
- ↑ இல்லம்.
- ↑ சேர்ப்பு.
- ↑ பாத்தி.
- ↑ மனை.
- ↑ வயின்.
- ↑ உறையுள்.
- ↑ புக்கில். The houses of Brāhmaṇas were given the Sanskrit name of Aharam (ஆகரம்) and the street where they lived akkirāhāram (அக்கிரரகரம்.)
- ↑ மாடம்.
- ↑ மாடி.
- ↑ மாளிகை.
- ↑ மாள்.
- ↑ இறப்பு.
- ↑ இறை.
- ↑ வளவு.
- ↑ தாழ்வாரம்.
- ↑ முன்றில்.
- ↑ முற்றம்.
- ↑ நிலாமுற்றம்.
- ↑ உத்திரம்.
- ↑ தூலம்.
- ↑ சுற்றவாரி.
- ↑ தாழ்.
- ↑ துடை.
- ↑ முகடு.
- ↑ விடங்கம்.
- ↑ திண்ணை.
- ↑ குறடு.
- ↑ ஒட்டுத்திண்ணை.
- ↑ மண்.
- ↑ கரி.
- ↑ சாண.
- ↑ வாயில்படி.
- ↑ நிலை.
- ↑ கதவு.
- ↑ அரணம்.
- ↑ அரவம்.
- ↑ காப்பு.
- ↑ தோட்டி.
- ↑ புதவு.
- ↑ வாரி.
- ↑ சாளரம்.
- ↑ சன்னல்.
- ↑ பலகணி.
- ↑ இடைகழி.
- ↑ நடை.
