Kerala Architecture

13. Usual items of use in old Kerala houses

a) Aattu Kattil-It is a swinging piece of wood, wide and long enough for two or three persons to sit. Four corners of this wooden piece will be firmly fixed with thick coir to the roof. One or two people will sit and somebody will push it for swinging. It is used to be fixed in large living rooms in old houses
In present day houses also, people who like this feature fix it mostly in family living area where family members can sit and swing in this as part of relaxation
b) Kindy-It is a brass utensil filled with water used to be kept at the steps of Poomukham for cleaning feet of those who enter the house. It has a side opening just like a tap so that a person can easily use it to clean his feet before entering the house
In present day houses, probably you can see this as an antique item displayed and nothing more than that
c) Montha-It is similar to Kindy made of brass. Only difference is that it does not have wide opening at top and side tap like arrangement for pouring water. It is not kept at the entry. It is kept inside the house for storage of drinking water; milk etc.While milking the cow by the house wife montha was used to collect milk pressed out of the mammary of the cow
d) Uruly-It is a larger vessel to cook food for large gatherings and to keep cooked food stored. Usually made of brass
e) Arakallu-Grinding stones-It is two pair of stones, one large with a level top and tne other round in cross section with length less than width of the base stone. It is used for manual grinding of spices and coconut for preparing curries with the main meal, rice
f) Ural-This is a granite piece almost cylindrical in shape with an opening at top which has a central portion with slight depth to keep granules to be crushed with a long piece of wood normally that of coconut wood with two ends fixed with metallic crushing elements. This long piece of wood used to crush granules to powder by repeated crushing through forcing by hand up and down by women doing house hold work in olden days Kerala, is called Ulakka.It was a familiar sight in Kerala houses where many women used to chit chat and crush granules to powder in their respective urals using Ulakka ,especially during preparation for family feasts along with functions like marriage