2. A 200-year old living labyrinth

The highlight of our trip was the visit to Katapadi, a small village located in the verdant coastal region of South Kanara, now called Dakshina Kannada, between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats. I learnt that the name Katapadi was derived from "Kattu paadi" which means "tie it down" in a local dialect, Tulu. Apparently, the hamlet was named Katapadi after a lost horse was found and tied down there centuries ago.

Katapadi was where my forefather built a home in 1823 that became the wellspring of our community’s cultural and social identity for more than seven generations. The house had a unique legal status – rather than claiming it as his own property, the founder registered it in the town’s records as the property of the family deity, Sanathana Gopal, one of the manifestations of Krishna, one of the ten avatars of divinity, and among the most influential figures in Hinduism. For all generations to come, members of our family could live in the house by right, but they did not own it. Thus, my forefather created the legal basis for a distinctive community philosophy – rather than “owners,” we should consider ourselves “custodians” and “stewards” of a shared cultural legacy.

The house itself was hardly just a house – rather, it was a sprawling two-story labyrinth, with an unbroken line of residents for two centuries. On the main level were seven open courtyards, endlessly long verandahs with carved teak columns and pillars, a temple, or Sanctum Sanctorum, multiple kitchens, a granary, outdoor baths, and three wells from which residents drew water for drinking, cooking and bathing.

We found a maze of smaller rooms on the upper floor that were living spaces for family members – including the room in which my own great-grandfather had made his first home, along with his older children, in the early 1900s. At peak occupancy, almost one hundred members of our extended family lived under one roof. Over time, many left and built independent homes, some of which were close to the main house, making the whole area a veritable community township.

The front facade of our 200-year old ancestral home