When the Nagarathar Chettiyar community left the region of Chettinadu in Tamil Nadu, they left a part of themselves behind—their palatial ancestral homes
“WE WERE LIKE fools who had discovered an incredible treasure,” said my host, an architect from France called Michel Adamant. “We went from village to village, discovering streets of decaying mansions with ornate facades and interiors, which left us to imagine the fascinating stories of their owners.”
I was in the small, obscure village of Kothamangalam, staying in a 108-year-old mansion called Saratha Vilas—the ancestral property of the wealthy merchant, Subramanya Chettiyar. As the morning light filtered through the stained-glass windows, it seemed like the entire world nestled in this sprawling mansion. There were pillars of Burmese teak, mirrors and chandeliers glistening with Belgian glass, tiles from Japan and the Netherlands, and Italian marble under my feet.
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