A Vatara () is a type of

housing complex A housing estate (or sometimes housing complex, housing development, subdivision or community) is a group of homes and other buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to country. Popular throug ...

, similar to

row houses A terrace, terraced house ( UK), or townhouse ( US) is a type of medium-density housing which first started in 16th century Europe with a row of joined houses sharing side walls. In the United States and Canada these are sometimes known as row ...

, typically found in urban

Karnataka Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. Vataras usually are single floor or have two stories, with a row of homes on each floor. They usually have a common corridor in the middle. They are usually occupied by

middle-class The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Commo ...

families and students and typically have a single owner, who may or may not live in the same vatara. Akin to the

chawl A chawl ( Marathi: चाळ) is a type of residential building found in western India, similar to a tenement. Typically low quality housing, chawls are generally associated with poverty. The first chawls were constructed in the early 1700s, as ...

s of Mumbai or a

tenement A tenement is a type of building shared by multiple dwellings, typically with flats or apartments on each floor and with shared entrance stairway access. They are common on the British Isles, particularly in Scotland. In the medieval Old Town, E ...

, a Vatara is a typology that has emerged as a low-cost form of multiple housing.

In popular culture

Life in vataras is portrayed in some

Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...

films, e.g. '' Ganeshana Maduve'' directed by

Phani Ramachandra H. S. Phani Ramachandra is a Kannada film and television director. He is known for directing such classic Kannada comedy films as '' Ganeshana Maduve'' and '' Gauri Ganesha'' and the TV serial '' Danda Pindagalu''. His films mainly portray middl ...

. A popular TV serial in Kannada called ''Vatara'' (featuring the popular actor ''"Comedy Time"'' Ganesh) portrayed life in a vatara in

Bengaluru Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

References

Buildings and structures in Karnataka House types {{India-struct-stub