For Amar Ramesh, the “mogappu” is more than the foyer of the traditional mansion in Tami Nadu’s Chettinad region; to him, it symbolises the architectural grandeur of this area.
So captivated is the Chennai photographer by these intricately-carved gateways — embellished by fascinating designs and striking colours — that he has published an entire coffee table book on them.
The book, titled Mogappu, is a pictorial ode to the aesthetic portals of these palatial homes of Chettinad, portrayed through the 108 images Ramesh has shot over a decade.
Mogappu is an amalgam of two Tamil words — mugam meaning “face” and amaippu meaning “the look”. Together, the words literally mean “the arrangement of the face”.
“Its meaning in the context of a home is ‘portal of the entrance area’. It signifies the area from the gate, through the entranceway, to the main door. However, in this book, it particularly denotes the front, street-facing portals of the Chettinad mansions,” Ramesh noted in the book.
A place steeped in history
“Chettinad is an amazing place filled with history,” Ramesh told South First, explaining his fascination with the region and its architecture.
“All the Chettinad mansions have beautiful stories. Every small and big aspect of the house — the grandeur if the doors, the deeply-shaped verandahs, the decorated courtyard, the well-designed windows and walls, floors, pillars and even the roof are stunning.”
Ramesh believes the Chettinad bungalows have not received the attention they deserve. “If these houses were built in some other country, they would have made lots of money attracting tourists,” he observed.
He has a point; the palatial homes — mostly built between 1850 and 1920 — are riveting, and over the years, Ramesh has repeatedly been lured into entering one or the other with his camera. On the day of this interview, too, Ramesh confessed he was in Chettinad on an assignment.
And of all the features that has drawn him, the entrance was what he found most fascinating. As he quipped, “A mogappu is hard to miss.”
The Chettiars of Chettinad
Ramesh is not exaggerating; it is hard to walk by the Chettinad mansions and not notice the mogappu. It is equally hard not to stop and wonder, who lived here?
The credit for the marble-and-teak bungalows goes to the affluent Nattukottai Chettiar or Nagarathar community
The Chettiars hailed from the region, which straddles the Sivagangai and Pudukottai districts consisting of a cluster of villages; it is their contribution that got the Chettinad region nominated to UNESCO’s World Heritage list of traditional mansions.
Not only were the Chettiars rich, having made their money from moneylending and trading in salt and spices, they were also well-travelled.
“They imbibed the influences of many cultures around the world and brought them to South India,” said Ramesh.
“They also understood the ability of the local artisans to absorb external ideas and create gorgeous structures.”
Plus, Ramesh said, the Chettiars “took pride in showing the world” their fine taste. And what better way was there to catch the attention of passers-by than through a lavishly ornate mogappu?
“They used this portal to showcase their love for art, interest towards culture and religion,” he explained.
Stories the mogappus tell
Mogappus depicted other aspects as well. For instance, some reflected what the Chettiars absorbed from the British colonialists.
Ramesh said that some mogappus had statues of British royalty and soldiers, adding that these “symbolised strong relations” of the owners with the authorities.
Then there are mogappus depicting Indian freedom fighters including Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. “Those Chettiars supported a free India,” he said of the owners.
But a majority of these bungalows sport statues of Hindu deities like the Gajalakshmi (flanked by elephants, denoting prosperity), Lord Krishna, Lord Shiva and Parvati (symbolising a happy married life), among others. These are made of stucco, locally known as sudhai, a material widely used in temples of that time as well.
The statues/idols held significance, Ramesh explained. “Gajalakshmi is the Goddess of wealth, and her statue/idol signified Laxmi would never leave the house, and the family would stay prosperous.”
Lord Krishna’s idol denotes something similar. “It meant that they worshipped Narayana,” said Ramesh.
“As per mythological scripts, this means that the Goddess Laxmi was never too far away.”
Riot of colours, motifs
Originally, the mogappus featured motifs like plants, leaves, or various designs such as circles, had lattices for ventilation, and the artwork was of varied textures created through sanding or grating.
But what really makes the mogappus stand out were the contrasting colours used to paint the various motifs.
“I still don’t know who taught these artists to come up with such great colour combinations,” said Ramesh wonderingly.
“Today, designers are trained to do colour contrasts. But back then, these artists had no education. The colours match and blend so well that it is hard not to think where did these ideas come from?”
Although a major portion of the mogappu has muted colours like ivory, cream and grey, a typical Chettinad home also features vibrant colours such as turquoise, yellow, indigo, green, maroon and red.
In addition, the entranceways were unusually built about five to six feet above the ground. Ramesh explained the reason for building elevated houses: community feared tsunami and floods.
“They didn’t want to move around, and wanted to safeguard their homes from natural calamities,” he said.
But it also meant that the courtyards were not visible to people on the street outside.
Ramesh presents these small yet significant details in his book, the photographs a fitting tribute to skilled artisans and craftsmen, and also the privileged families who once lived in these Chettinad mansions.
More ‘Tamil’ subjects on cards
A trained software engineer living in the US for 10 years, Ramesh returned to India as he felt “something was missing” in his life.
“I had an amazing work life and was getting paid really well,” he said. “But somewhere something was missing. I wanted to do something more exciting. So one day I just quit IT and returned to India in 2010 to start photography, a skill I had apart from engineering.”
Ramesh is not a trained photographer; everything he knows about the subject he learnt while travelling in the US, where he would pick up his camera and start clicking anything that caught his eye.
In India, he began with temple photography, and after a successful wedding shoot that became viral on social media, he started his own studio in Chennai.
Along the way, he published two other books — Stones and Stories (about the Kanchi Kailasanathar temple, published in 2016) and 50 Inspiring Women Stories of Gujarat (2022).
In future, Ramesh wants to document the history of Tamil Nadu, especially of Chola temples, and other lesser-known and still significant places and art forms from India.
“The main reason I want to restrict my work to Tamil Nadu is because this one state itself has so much to cover. Tamil Nadu itself will take me seven lives.”
His next project will be another book on the Chettinad mansions, but this one focusing on the pillars.
“Today hardly anybody lives in these homes. Some have caretakers and some have an old couple living in them but are on the verge of passing. I hope my book is a portal for the readers into their lives and the many generations before them.”
