PLAVU (JACK FRUIT TREE) Dear friends,
In the home behind mine there isa yielding jackfruit tree in the compound. Medium size jack fruits not ripenare seen today by me while cleaning back side of my home. This made me to writesomething new/refreshing about jack wood and jack fruits and it’s cousins,Anjili chakka (wild jackfruit), and katachakka (Bread fruit). Sincerely, Gopalakrishnan 26-4-2021 1. Ara and Nilavara The olden type Nalukettu modelhouses of Kerala, have an ARA (Storage room) in the middle of the house. Before the ARA there is small area to lightthe Nilavilakku. After the small place will be nadumittam (inner courtyard (/Patio). This ARA is a wooden work and will be madeof jack fruit tree planks and frames. The four sides of ARA are called NERA andit will have beautiful carpentry finishing outside and plain inside. The topand bottom of Are are also made of jack wood. ARA size used to be about 10’x8’. Below the ARA is the chamber called NILAVARA. ARA is used to keep importantthings in boxes or in its floor. Normally with in ARA there will be a few boxeswith artworks to keep important things including GRANTHAMs. These boxes also would be madeof using Jack wood planks). Pandalam palace Thiruvabharanamwas kept in the ARA of the valiya koyikkal palace earlier. The old box damaged over theyears and replaced with new one made use of teakwood now. Thiruvabharanam isalso kept in a safer place in the palace now. Nilavara (Below ARA) will have lesserheight of about 4’. Sometimes a small window below ARA will provide some light.Or else either entered with a light or using the light from the entrance toARA. Normally entrance to ARA is kept under lock and key. From the back side ofthe Ara there will be a few steps to go in to NILAVARA which will have a topclosure. Normally nilavara is kept closed and locked. Nilavara in certain houses I have seenventilated through mini rectangular wooden grills to give more light. In Mannarsala it is believed the Muthassan is residingin naga roopam is in Nilavara of the illam and nilavara payasam is offered oncea year on Ayilyam day in Uruli as his food. Only Mannarsala amma canenter the nilavara with payasam in uruli and offer to grandfather. Nextday amma again goes down and collect the EMPTY URULI. 2. Jack wood for soft works Jack wood is best for all typesof soft carpentry works. Earlier days most of the works like box, table, chair,doors, windows, NERA of ARA etc. were made using jack wood. Anjili (Wild jack wood)was secondary for door frames. Teak and wild jack wood were used in roofing works.Rosewood (very hard) was mostly used for costly art works. However in palacesrose wood use could be seen more. 3 PARA (LARGE MEASURE) Para was an exclusive measure ofolden days. It could contain about 7-8 Kgs of rice. When jack wood was plentythe Para was made exclusively made using jack wood. It had decorative and protective metal works. Later brass and copper are alsowere used to make paras. Currently in Kerala and TamilnaduPara is used as a measure for divine offerings. Para is considered as an architectural piece anddivine item. Small size Para made of brass is used as show pieceitem in most Kerala homes. Para had three younger brotherscalled Edangazhi/Changazi,Nazi and uri. Ten measures of changazhi made a para. Four nazi madea changazhi and two uri made a nazhi. All these measures were made using blocksof jackwood. For the local temple festival Parayidal was done tothe deity. The deity would be visiting all households on the elephant topcarried by the empranthiri. A full measure of paddy heaped over the paraoffered is called Parayidil. 4. Plavila The fallen brown leaf of jackwood tree was used to drink Kanji (porridge) from the plate making a semi foldin the end and making a stitch and taking Kanji in it and holding it in the jnettu area. Green leaf should never be usedfor taking kanji by plucking it. It is told poverty would come if green leaf is used. Now in vessels shopswe can purchase in stainless steel plavila (stitched to consume porridge form)and many homes keep one or two. To consume hot kanji (porridge) with inchippuior Naranga kaari (pickles) nothing would be equal to this plavila. Now mostconsume porridge when they are unwell. 5. Plavu (Jackfruit tree) Jack tree is a spreading tree andrequires more space to grow. It has a taproot (Naraya veru) and spreading rootsto sides. Jackfruit will appear on a grown tree and its branches. At least itwill take 10 years for flowers appearing in Jack tree. A fully grown up Jack treewould have a diameter of above 2 feet and height of about 20-30 feet. The fullygrown period can be about 50-60 years. Normally we permit spreading by branches after reaching a height of aboutve10’ so that main trunk will not grow more length wise. Instead it will growbreadth wise. 6 Kathal and patta When a plavu is cut for its trunkuse, the outer skin is first removed. Then there will be a yellowish portionand then darkish yellow portion. This darkish yellow portion is used for makingfurniture and other things. The yellow portion is called patta and used forfire wood. Darker portion is called Kathal (heartwood). 7. Pee pee pee –Dhum dhum dhum The centre Kathal (heartwood) isused to make drum Thakil(percussion instrument) and double reed wind instrument Nadaswaram. Also for many drumsKathal is used making it to different forms. 8. Kodungallur amma and Tirumanthankunnu Devi The idols of Kodungallur amma andDevi at Tirumanthan kunnu are made of Jack fruit, I have read. The main doorsof sreekovil (sanctum) in many temples are made of jackwood. The idol of Attukal Devi is also madeof jackwood. All the temples mentionedare Kerala temples. 9. Furniture Most of the furniture of yesteryears were made of jackwood. Jackwood was used for making table, chair, doorsand door frames, Nera of ARA, pathayam (granary) and all and had majesticappearance. A table and three chairs of Plavu used to be in guest room. Hostwill sit in the opening side of table and guests on the other side on thechair. It was the period sofa has not made its appearance. 10. Ammachi plavu in Marthanda varma In the novel Marthanda varma byCV Raman pillai (One of the earliest novels of Malayalam) there is a referenceto Ammachi plavu which was the hidingplace to king. There are a number of plamoodjunctions in Kerala. These all were the locations of big Jack tree along roadside I will continue in next posting. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. 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