Tharavad () (തറവാട്), is the

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 2 ...

word for the

ancestral home An ancestral home is the place of origin of one's extended family, particularly the home owned and preserved by the same family for several generations. The term can refer to an individual house or estate, or to a broader geographic area such as a ...

of aristocratic families in

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

, which usually served as the common house for the

joint family An extended family is a family that extends beyond the nuclear family of parents and their children to include aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins or other relatives, all living nearby or in the same household. Particular forms include the stem a ...

system practiced in the state. The German linguist

Hermann Gundert Hermann Gundert (Stuttgart, 4 February 1814 – 25 April 1893 in Calw, Germany) was a German missionary, scholar, and linguist, as well as the maternal grandfather of German novelist and Nobel laureate Hermann Hesse. Gundert is chiefly know ...

, in his Malayalam—English dictionary published in 1872, defines a ''tharavad'' as, "An ancestral residence of land-owners and kings", and also as, "A house, chiefly of noblemen". Contemporary usage of the word is now more generic to all social classes. By extension, the word refers not just to the family's house but to the extended family that shares that house. In the Nair Tharavads, the head of the family was known as Karnavar and the inheritance was

matrilineal Matrilineality is the tracing of kinship through the female line. It may also correlate with a social system in which each person is identified with their matriline – their mother's lineage – and which can involve the inheritance ...

. In the Namboothiri Tharavads, the inheritance was

patrilineal Patrilineality, also known as the male line, the spear side or agnatic kinship, is a common kinship system in which an individual's family membership derives from and is recorded through their father's lineage. It generally involves the inheritan ...

References

{{Culture of Kerala Kerala society Culture of Kerala Social history of Kerala