ancient_building

            Sometime ago, a great Malay literary figure of Kuala Lumpur came along.
            He was talking for more than an hour. He wanted to see one of my souvenirs and I
gave him one. He saw the photos of the Kadaaram ruins and exclaimed that these foundations
and buildings can last for so long.

            What technology did they have?

            I answered that I knew about the mixture of mortar that they used in buildings in
Tamilnadu.

            The same type of bricks had been used. And the mortar or 'kaarai' that was found
in the ruins of kadaaram were of the same type as the 'kaarai' used in Tamilnaadu.
            This was the 'Vajra-kaarai'

            Here is the gist of what I told him.

            The Tamils used the limestone that was found below the ground.

            This was pounded and broken down. These pieces were staked together with firewood
and the whole pile was covered with clay.
            This was a 'lime-kiln'. There were holes in the wall of the kiln.
            The top of the kiln was open.

            The bottom of the kiln was set afire.

            The fire smouldered and spread upwards. While it burnt,
it caused some chemical changes. The lime-stone which is Calcium Carbonate gets converted to Calcium Oxide. A lot of heat is also given off. Carbon Dioxide is produced which escapes.

            The resultant is quick lime - chemically Calcium Oxide.

            When mixed with water, a lot of heat is produced and slaked lime is formed.

          Slaked lime was the basic substance for building materials in those days.

          Sand was mixed with slaked lime in the given proportion and it was used a s plaster.
This plaster was porous and absorbed Carbon Dioxide from the air. Due to chemical reaction,
the slaked lime turned into Calcium Carbonate which was hard and stone-like. This caused
the lime mortar to become hard and also held bricks and stones together.

          This recipe was used for simple buildings.

          I told him more.......

          Tirumalai Nayakkar was the most famous of the Nayak kings of Madurai Naadu.
During his time, the Madurai Naadu included the present day districts- Madurai, Dindugal,
Theni, Virudhnagar, Ramanathapuram, Sivagangai, Pudukkottai, Tirunelveli, Tutukudi,
Kumari, parts of south KeraLa, Tiruchi, Karuur, Manapaarai, Namakkal, Salem, Dharmapuri, Kovai, and Erode. Nearly half of the present Tamilnaadu belonged to him.
            Being an affluent monarch, he built a lot of temples. The greatest achivement of his,
in the field of architecture was to building a very beautiful and huge palace complex called the 'Mahal' in Madurai. It was known as 'Renga Vilasam' and 'Sorga Vilasam'. But to the common people of later times, it was known as the 'Tirumalai Nayakkar Mahal'. Only one-fifth of its
original size remains.
          The other major project was Sri Meenakshi Amman Temple's renovation and repair.
          A special type of mortar was used.

          Sand was passed through a sieve and the fine sand was separated. This was further
ground to a finer texture.

          Ordinary lime was not used. They used the lime prepared from high grade conch
shells from the sea.

          This conch shell lime which is called 'sanka chuNNam' was mixed with fine sand.
And instead of water, they used cane sugar solution. After that they mixed uLundhu gram, gooseberry(nelli), thaanRi, nux vomica nuts and gound them further.

          This was known as 'vachchira kaarai'.

          The bricks were also specially made. They were large in breadth and length. But the thickness was lesser than that of a present day brick. Finely cut straw, cane sugar juice and
some other secret agents were mixed with high grade fine clay and this was baked in a
brick-kiln.

          These bricks were plastered with the mortar paste.

          The resultant brick and mortar work lasts several centuries.

          The Chettinadu is a region in northern Sivaganggai and southern Pudukkottai districts.
It is the homwland of the Naattukkottai Nagaraththaar. Their architecture is also special. They
are known for their palatial houses of special design.
          The artisans of Chettinadu used a special recipe for the buildings that they built.
          The mortar mixture was almost the same as that which was used by Tirumalai
Nayakkar.
          Sugar cane juice was used instead of cane sugar solution.

          The brickwork was done with this type of mortar. But the walls thus built were
covered with a special type of plaster.

          Again Conch shell lime was used. This was mixed with egg white, sugar cane juice,
nux vomica nuts, and the thin and soft flesh of young unripe coconuts(iLaniir valzukkai).

          This mixture is plastered. After some time, the plaster covering will be seen to 'sweat'.
This is pressed very gently with very high quality soft fine muslin cloth and the water droplets
are absorbed.
          When the plaster covering is semi-hard, it is polished with a very smooth pumice stone(maakkal).

          When the plaster hardens, it attains a creamy lustre and seems to have a translucence
of its own.

          In 1799, VeeraPandya Kattabommu, the Polygar of PanchalamKurichi was captured
along with his younger brother Umaiyan. He was hanged. But Umaiyan was kept in the jail of PalayamkOttai under very tight security.

          In the meanwhile, the Fort of Panchalamkurichi was partially destroyed and abandoned.

          Umaiyan's followers staged a very daring and secret jailbreak and Umaiyan made
his escape.

          He and 20000 of his followers reoccupied the Fort of Panchalamkurichi. It was rebuilt
from its ruins.

          Clay and earth were mixed with straw, silk cotton, sugar cane juice, coconut water,
unripe coconut flesh, and with this mixture, the fort's walls were built. On the outer side of
this wall, they heaped up soft mud and made it to slope downwards.

          They took only two weeks to rebuild the fort.

          When it hardened, the Britishers found it difficult to break.

          It withstood more cannonade with bigger and more powerful cannons than during
the first attack.
          The cannon shots were absorbed by the mud slope and wall inside was unharmed.
The mud slope acted as a buffer.

          In fact, one of the eighteen-pounders could not take the strain and its barrel split.
An eighteen-pounder is a big cannon which shoots cannon balls weighing eighteen pounds.
That is about 12 kilos.
          After two weeks of intense attack, the fort's wall gave way.
          When the fort was untenable, Umaiyan abandoned it.

          He carried on the war for another two more years in other places.
          But that is a different story.