Not every country has a rich culture to be portrayed. India, especially south India has a marvelous heritage to display. This job is not easy as we think. India has become more urban with the population immigration happening towards the cities. Rural areas of the country are slowly but steadily losing its nativity and identity.
Dakshinachitra was founded in the year 1996 with a vision to take us to the olden days of south Indian tradition.It depicts the natural way of living of south Indians who were relatively conservative in nature compared to that of north Indians.
Dakshinachitra is certainly a picture of south as how they call it!
What are the cultures that constitute South of India?
Tamilnadu, with Chennai as its capital Tamilnadu is considered to be one of the culture capitals of the Southern part of India. Dakshinachitra is located in Chennai, a little far from Chennai to be précised, way down in the East coast road of Chennai towards the olden day French colony Pondy, supposedly Pondicherry now!
Tamil, the oldest classical language that is spoken in the human era is the official and widely spoken language in this state; however people can communicate in English with ease.
Dakshinachitra projects the old style of living of the Tamilians maybe a few centuries ago even before India came under the British rule. We can see the oldest of the constructions of Tamil homes modeled in Dakshinachitra with a brief description in an effort to give us the feel of how they looked like and how the living was then like!
The excitement doesn’t stop there; in India based on the occupation of the family and the creed the society was divided into class and sub-class, Dakshinachitra has given individual attention to each and every class of the olden day society, and their way of approach towards life. Wondering about the culture and traditions of the merchants of those days of south India? Visit this place to gain clarity!
Kerala – God’s own country!
As the name suggests Kerala is one of the beautiful states of India that has preserved their natural wealth and struck the chord of balance between the nature and modernization.
Trivandrum, which was then called Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of Kerala is depicted in Dakshinachitra to the level of perfection.
Malayalam is the official and widely spoken language in Kerala. Malayalam as a language was formed as a unique blend of two languages Tamil and Sanskrit, which are the considered to be the oldest prevailing languages on earth!
Kerala Kathakali dancer at Chennai Dakshinachitra, East Coast Road.
There’s an interesting thing that happened when Nestle launched their flagship product ‘Nestle Milkmaid’ in late 1970’s in India.
The product that did amazingly well in the rest of the world as a milk substitute failed in Indian market miserably, guess why?
It wasn’t because Indian’s didn’t like milk, India is one of the largest consumers of milk and milk products and they had no clue to justify their failure in Indian market.
In south India it is quite a natural thing to have a cattle shed and couple of cows as a part of their family and living. Cattle rather cows are treated with a lot of care and affection and considered to be the equals of God. People worshipped them as a part of their Hindu tradition.
The natural milk was readily available and there was no necessity for a milk substitute unlike western countries. South Indians had cows; they called them fondly as ‘Komatha’ which literally means Mother Nature’s gift!
Now are you curious to see the set up cattle shed model and the house model of keralaites, Dakshinachitra has got that!
Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka
These other two states of Southern India share a lot of similarities including their occupation in the olden days. However there are two different languages being spoken by Andhra and Karnataka people, which are Telugu and Kannada respectively.
Telugu is the most widely spoken language in South India followed by Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada.
On the other hand Karnataka speaks Kannada a distinctly unique south Indian Language.
Modeled cattle shed; weaver’s house and granary are things to look out for when you visit Dakshinachitra with respect Andhra and Karnataka region Origin.
