Tharavad

Tharavad ( pronunciation ) is Malayalam word for ancestral home, usually used as the common house for the joint family system practised by people in Kerala.. Hermann Gundert in his Malayalam - English dictionary published in 1872 lists Tharavad as "ancestral residence of land-owners" and also as "a house, chiefly of noblemen". Contemporary usage of the word is more generic to all social classes.