ISHTIKA (BRICK)
Dear friends, Today my posting is about bricks. Bricks arecommonly used in house construction in Tamilnadu and Southern and Central Kerala. In North Kerala the old typevettukal/chenkallu /red stone as well as Ishtika, are used in house construction.The vettukal is very strong and sawed and taken in North Kerala. In central Keralait is cut with axe and taken. Bricks are moulded in a standarddimension box. Red stones are cut from earth and sized to specified sizes. Normallythree bricks might form the size of a red stone. Today while writing about Yagyas, Ithought - since bricks are used to border Ishti- Yagya, it got the name as Ishtika? Let me gomore in to Ishtika. Sincerely, Gopala Krishnan 22-10-2011. Re posted on 31-5-2021 after editing and updating. R. GopalaKrishnan 1. Ishtika for compound wall. In Central Kerala while I wasconstructing my home in 1984’s, the more common was vettukal for walls. Onevettukal is three times the size of Ishtika. The compound wall requiring less width,it was the practice to use Ishtika (bricks) for compound walls. The vettukal ofgood quality is used for walls to support the weight of RCC roofing with beamsif necessary to support the weight. The vettukal was more freelyavailable comparing to bricks in central Kerala at that time. Now with pillar construction bricks are morecommonly used in house construction in central Kerala also. 2. Induction of Ishtika for walls. The added advantage was likevettukal no fine finishing required and bricks gave more appearance. There wasmore need of cement mortar for jointing, but comparing to reduction in labourcost, it was not felt high. So when I made an extension to my home or better aportion for rent, it was made with brick walls. 3. Bricks manufacturing There are two types of Bricks.One is made in the companies who were manufacturing tiles earlier. Theirfinishing was finer, and they could be used even without outer cement plaster.It was a fashion to have such finishing to houses during 1990’s. The other type of bricks islocally made using clay mostly from paddy fields. From the surface to about10-15 feet deep they could get clay. The bricks were manually made pouring itin moulds and sun dried. Then they were placed again in a cubical manner aroundfire wood placed in a chamber. While the fire woods burnt, the heat produced burnedthe bricks. After the outer bricks burnt and become brownish the fire is put out and bricks weretaken out. 3a. half burnt bricks There could be a few bricks not burntfully either inside or outside. Their colour would not be brown. They arecalled half burnt bricks and sold for a lesser rate. Half burnt bricks were usedfor making huts and sheds which require less load bearing. 4. Cooking ovens and bricks Mostly on those days when firewood was only available for ovens, for making ovens, bricks were used placingthem in a triangular fashion for resting of vessels for feasts. The bricks ineach corner of the triangle is decided by the size of the vessel and heightrequired. At least three ovens calledLarge, medium, small were made for feasts in a temporary shed using bricks.Large oven was used to place bigger vessels like chembu, Uruli etc. Medium ovens were used to place vessels likeKuttakam, Poni etc. Small oven was used for pettyworks like coffee, tea preparation, frying etc. During my student days in homes,kitchen oven was remadeusing bricks by masons and cement plastered, over a cement platform withchimney over oven. One side of the platform was used to place ammikkal.Firewood logs were placed below the platform. 5. Harappa and Mohanjedaro. I have studied in the excavationsat Harappa and Mohanjedaro, the excavators could find a big city and walls and pavements were made ofbricks. This make me to think, earlierthe wider use was bricks and vettukal and rubble were later additions. Probablythe more availability clay on surface level itself might be the reason for makingbricks. 6. Homam and Ishtika Our new home flooring has changedto tiles/ marble/ granite, to avoid breakage, bricks are placed in a squarearrangement and Homakundam is placed over it. Metal Homa kundams with legs areavailable in Chennai Mylapore. Probably we may get metal Homakundam inTrivandrum, Ernakulam and Trichur in Kerala 7. Homa kkuzhi When I visited the home of my daughterin law’s Periappa, at Karamana gramam, I could see a square hollow area of 1.5feet x 1.5 feet and depth of about 4” in the Kootam. It was temporarily covered by placingbricks closely. I was told it was homa kkuzhi side and bottom finished with bricks. He is aretired Chief engineer of KSEB residing in a gramam home. I am not sure in Palghat gramam Kalpathietc. Such homes are there withHomakkuzhi. 8. Kallu vettam kuzhi and Ishtika kkuzhi. Kallu vettaam kuzhi is the place from which vettukal are cut andtaken. It would appear like a small pond and steps were made to get down to washvessels or clothes. Somehow always water would be there in all seasons. There is a very large kalluvettam kuzhi not filled near Pandalam palace. Now bushes are grown on sides.The purpose of keeping the same without filling would have some historicreasons. Ishtika kkuzhi is the paddy fields from where clay is removed. Theybecome small ponds. But most are filled bringing soil from other areas from wheresoil had to be removed. These areas, unless top levelled with good soil, cannotbe used for immediate paddy cultivation. But what is felt is, incourse of time, the soil becomes good. 9. Nature – It is all providing Depend on our requirements natureprovides one thing or other. I have heard in US more wood is used for buildingswalls. But using wood is not an imaginable thing in India because of cost and non-availabilityat present except those having crores of rupees. Now many flats are provided withcement blocks for walls (Not hollow bricks). These flats are raised to have 15-20floors. Once mosaic chips and tiles werethe flooring item. It gave way to marbles and granites. When the load bearingstrength of floor became a problem in flats, tiles flooring which have 1/5thor lesser weight of the granite of the same size is done. 10. Pillar construction With pillar construction, loadbearing has transferred to pillars and walls are just for separation. Wallstrength has become immaterial and we can see around us big buildings standingon pillars. Now major companies buildflats with a ground floor for car parking. Multiple lifts are provided and 24hour service of electricians are provided. Present day lifts are almost problem free. -- 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]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/31231600.119025.1622474878757%40mail.yahoo.com.
