Enthusiasts revive interest in India's grand old mansions

CHENNAI -- Gargantuan houses of mud, brick and wood, with ornate doors, carved pillars and sloping roofs, built like giant jigsaw puzzles which can be dismantled and reassembled at another place -- this is the vernacular domestic architecture of Kerala state, in southern India.

These tharavadu (family house) structures were built in blocks of four or eight around open central courtyards, usually in jackfruit wood and teak, both of which resist the effects of termites and the region's heavy rainfall. Many were built on a large scale, sometimes featuring sacred groves, ponds and granaries; some are three stories high. But when residents began to leave Kerala for better-paying work in the Persian Gulf, many were razed and replaced by concrete buildings.