THE PEOPLE

HOUSES AND HOUSING

The patterns of houses and housing have undergone consider- able changes particularly in the urban areas. The old type of houses of the rich living in joint families consisted of a front and back part separated by small open court on each side of which was a passage and in the upper storey an open terrace connecting front and back parts of the house. Such a plan of the house was once popular because when children would grow up and sons had families of their own, they could share the same house and yet to some extent each family could live apart.

In rural areas, members of each caste usually occupy a quarter of their own and that of the Mahars or Pardhans is at a little distance from the rest of the village. Very many villages have an old fort with earthen or brick walls about ten to fifteen feet high and 150 feet long. These are relics of the days of the Pendhari raids, when on the approach of the marauders all the villagers hastened within the fort. Houses of tenants have one to three rooms with an angan or small yard in front and a little space for a garden behind in which vegetables are grown during the rains. In Wun taluka, the houses are usually thatched, but elsewhere, they are often tiled. Dhaba houses with flat mud roofs are common. The walls are of mud plastered over bamboo matting. The Kunbis have a kothi or shed by the side of the house in which they keep their carts and agricultural implements. The houses of the Mahars are little one-roomed huts or jhopdas with a small yard in front. In some villages there is a cavdi or common house, which serves as an office for the patel and also as a resthouse for subordinate government officials. The black-smiths' and carpenters' shops are places of common resort for the cultivators where they have their implements repaired. Ordinary cultivators usually have earthen pots and pans for cooking purposes and brass ones for eating from, while the well-to-do have all their vessels of brass. No Kunbi will lie on the ground, probably because a dying man is always placed on the ground to breathe his last. So every one has a cot (baj) consisting of a wooden frame with a bed, usually made of the strings of san (hemp) or the root fibre of the palasa tree (Butea fron-dosa). The hemp fibre is coloured red or black and occasionally green and is strung in patterns. This is perhaps all the furniture they have, barring rough almirahs and seating stools called pats.

Old houses were built with the idea of providing shelter and safety, while modern designs and constructions are particular about the principles of convenience, economy, health and sanitation with the necessary safety. The richer class of people are now having independent cottages and bungalows with accommodation generally consisting of a verandah, a drawing or sitting room, two or three extra rooms to be used as bedrooms, guest-room or study-room, a kitchen, a parlour, pantry or storeroom and an independent bath and W.C. There is a small garden around and a garage. The rooms are so arranged as to have an independent access for each. The walls are of stone or brick masonry in lime or concrete mortar and plastered in lime or cement mortar. The doors are panelled or glazed and they have brass fixtures. Enough windows are there to allow free passage for air and light. The floors are paved with stone or concrete and are free from dampness, drainage and sanitation being carefully looked after. The roof is either covered with Mangalore tiles or terraced in reinforced concrete. The rooms are generally colour-washed or distempered in different shades of light colour. The drawing hall is generally provided with half a dozen cane or wooden chairs or sofa and two side-chairs, duly upholstered, one or two easy or rocking chairs, one big central table, two or three small teapoys and the floor or part of it around the table covered with a carpet. The dining hall is equipped with a dining table and chairs and a side table. The bed-room is furnished with one or two wooden or iron bedsteads, a wardrobe or an almirah and dressing table with a mirror. Built in cupboards, shelves, pegs and sanitary fittings are provided wherever necessary. A cottage has only a ground floor and a bungalow generally has an additional floor.

During the last thirty or forty years, there is a tendency to live in convenient self-contained blocks, whether rented or owned, of which there are several in a single building. Housing societies have been formed on a co-operative basis and there has been much building activity on modern lines particularly in urban areas. This tendency is growing even in smaller towns but the patterns of houses in villages have not changed much. The poor people continue to live in huts as before, but wherever there has been Government or semi-Government building activity, as also in the banking and commercial houses, modern building patterns are adopted.

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