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[Others] Agraharam Homes

praveen

Life is a dream
Staff member
Objective: To help Brahmins to reclaim on their own, the centuries old Agraharams across the country, with the assistance of technology.

Mode: Through this dedicated website, to offer a virtual marketplace to enable the owners of property in the Agraharam to find an appropriate Brahmin family as a buyer or as a tenant.

Website: www.AgraharamHomes.com gets enhanced from funds received through crowdfunding from like minded individuals. It has tabs such as : About Us, Images of Agraharam, Meaning, concept and lifestyle of brahmins at the Agraharam through the ages, Scope of our activity, Why it is necessary to preserve Agraharam, Steps that we have proposed through our site, Details about our buy, sell and rent services catering exclusively to Agraharam residents, Ways in which volunteers could help, Images of the properties at Agraharam that are either on sale or available for rent and details of the neighborhood, List of Agraharams in South India, Forms, Help desk numbers etc.

Funding: We aim to raise funds purely through a crowdfunding campaign to mobilize nominal contributions from a minimum of Rs 101 to a maximum of Rs 1,001 from like minded individuals. We will close the campaign on reaching the first tranche of Rs 50,000 (Indian Fifty thousand only). Additional tranches will be opened as we need them. Our initiative is 'not for profit' and purely to fulfil our responsibility towards the Society and Agraharams in particular.

Accounts: Books of accounts showing source and application of funds will be maintained and the same will be audited.

Disclosure: All contributions will be voluntary and accepted only through bank transfers. Names of the donors will be displayed on our website, if authorized by the respective donor.

Our credentials: We are a group of professional retired bankers from the brahmin community. We hail from Agraharam in the southernmost tip of India. We have held responsible senior positions right upto CEO levels at various banks in India and abroad. We do not represent any social institution nor any NGO. Neither we have not donned the role of crusaders. We are a group of citizens who are saddened by the gradual erosion of Agraharam lifestyle and feel that the essence of Agraharam living should be retained by our generation for the sake of posterity and future generations.

Why this initiative? In the past few years, the principles behind the formation of the century old Agraharam way of living have steadily got diluted and threatened leading up to an eventual break up of Agraharams, for various monetary compulsions. Brahmins desirous of selling or renting their homes have been compelled to consider the first buyer or tenant for their property, although such a buyer or tenant may not jell or be in the best interest of the Agraharam. As conscious individuals, our team could not stand and stare at the unfortunate situations. Based on our years of professional experience, we decided to lend meaningful support to arrest the situation from further decay. www.AgraharamHomes.com is the first step of our team towards fulfilling this noble objective. For our team, no task is small or big. We believe every challenge can be resolved by breaking the large problem into small logical steps, each seamlessly linked to the other to successfully navigate any long journey. We love and respect all the communities. However, we feel it is our responsibility to retain and nourish our identity and way of life.

What is our aim? The humble aim of our team is to make it a collective initiative of 'like minded and concerned' individuals, to help Agraharams to regain their past glory in its pure and pristine form. Through our website www.AgraharamHomes.com, the owners of homes in the Agraharam will now be able to get much wider access to our database of prospective brahmins within India and abroad, interested in buying or renting a home in the Agraharam at appropriate terms, to retain and maintain the culture and tradition of Agraharams in tact.

Our goal - to lobby support and to ultimately get UNESCO Heritage site tag for Agraharams in India

  • What is an Agraharam? Agraharam is a name given to the dwelling place of Brahmins in India. This term is unique especially in South India. The term Agrahara means Primary Garland formed by a row of houses on either side, around a temple. Agraharam signifies the social status accorded to Brahmins because of their character.
Origin of Agraharam: Agraharams were created through grant of land and royal income from it, for religious purposes and for vedic scholars in the Brahmin community to maintain the temples in that land or a pilgrimage site and to sustain their families. Agraharams were built and maintained by the Chola and Pallava dynasties since they followed and propagated Vedic studies.
Agraharam is typically a village that comprises well lined streets, wherein, brahmins inhabit and lead a way of life that has been passed on through generations. The village is self-sufficient and caters to most of the needs of its residents. The women and men wear traditional attire and visit the river early in the morning for a bath and before the first rays of sun grace the village, they return home to carry out their daily chores. Women draw intricate Kolam outside their homes. The men engage in conducting spiritual activities as ordained in Shastras. They wear the holy thread and have the holy ash smeared over their forehead, neck, chest and arms. They perform vedic duties everyday, take care of cows either at their homes or at the numerous GoShallas and lead their life strictly as per the routine prescribed in the scriptures. The bright and eager-faced children go to the village school to gain knowledge about various subjects, including that of Vedas and Upanishads. Each family, more or less, leads a vedic life as per the tenets of shastras. The principle guiding the Agraharam was that of simple living, idealistic thinking and to be of help to the society.

Besides the houses on either side of the road, Agraharams have the temple with the deity of the village god at the centre, The formation of the houses resemble a garland around the temple. As per traditional town-planning, an agraharam consists of two rows of houses running north–south on either side of a road at one end of which would be a Shiva temple and at the other end, a Vishnu temple.

Why is the fabric of Agraharam in various stages of decay and disarray ? With Brahmins taking up professions in urban areas and some migrating abroad, Agraharams are vanishing fast. Many of the traditional houses are giving way to concrete structures and ugly commercial buildings. Initially the Agraharam was maintained fully using royal patronage but later the Agraharam became a self-sustaining economy. Due to economic compulsions, some of the residents in the Agraharams have been selling their homes to those who do not conform with the tenets and way of life that symbolises Agraharam.
All the essentials, right from cow milk, milked during the pre-dawn hours, fresh vegetables, fruits, flowers etc would be delivered at the doorstep with unfailing regularity. From every household the sound of hymns and religious texts uttered with clarity and exact pronunciation could be heard. The strong aroma of coffee would fill the air and at the later part of the day, the smell of traditional cuisine such as sambar and rasam would fill the air. In the evening, one can notice men and women visiting in ones and twos, the many temples in the villages. The smell of jasmine tucked in the braid of women would further enhance divinity in the atmosphere. Daily life in the agraharam follows century old ways of living and patterns without deviation.

However, in the past few years, aberrations and a marked difference in the type of residents inhabiting the village has been noticed. The residents of some of the agraharam now consist of unfamiliar faces and those that follow a way of life and practices that are distinctly different from those of the traditional residents. The neighbourhood, the streets of the agraharam, marketplace, kind of shops and even the riverside had a distinctly different composition. To the old timers staying in the agraharam, the change that is sweeping right in front of their eyes is indeed very painful and yet they seem to be helpless. Over the years, the frequent visitors to the Agraharam, have noticed an unmistakable, yet a slow and steady metamorphosis of the Agraharam. It disturbs the multitude of sweet memories that the residents of the Agraharam hold in their heart. Effective steps need to be taken by the collective efforts of like minded and concerned individuals to arrest the glaring anomaly that is setting in at some of the Agraharams.

When we started enquiring about the unmistakable change occuring in the village, the old timers in the village, threw their hands up with an air of despair. Although they knew that their Agraharam was undergoing irreversible change, yet, they could not stop their friends and neighbours from either selling their ancestral homes to outsiders who do not subscribe to the norms of the agraharam but on the mere strength of their deep pockets, were able to hold sway over the the sellers of homes in the Agraharam. Commerce was undeniably sidelining century old culture and tradition. When we dug deeper, we learnt that it was not only in one agraharam, but similar agraharams across South India has been facing a silent and relentless onslaught and in the process, the character of such agraharams was getting lost permanently, though the very same Agraharams had managed to successfully survive and ward off the successive foreign rule in our country for many years.

Can the situation be stopped or at least minimised ? The birth of www.AgraharamHomes.com was a felt need, to address the change sweeping across many Agraharams in South India. The website is work in progress and is getting developed holistically, purely through crowdfunding from like minded individuals who care enough to retain the life and soul of Agraharams or whatever is left of it. It is our belief that instead of worrying at the steady disintegration of Agraharam, we need to regroup as individuals and take remedial actions, without waiting for any outside agencies or government of the day to assist.

www.AgraharamHomes.com will be a virtual market place and will play the role of an enabler. It will facilitate the sellers / owners of homes in an Agraharam to find suitable buyers for their homes. For those who wish to rent their ancestral homes in the Agraharam, the site will enable them to find the right tenant.

In www.AgraharamHomes.Com we will upload details as well as images of homes available for sale or lease, in any Agraharam. The site will have appropriate disclaimers and adhere to data privacy norms to maintain confidentiality of all the parties. It will undertake extensive due diligence on the parties interested in either purchasing or taking on rent a home in an Agraharam. Once the buyers / tenants are shortlisted, our Relationship Manager will share their details in confidence, with the seller / landlord.

So, why are we undertaking this exercise and what is in it for us? All through the process, our objective is focussed on getting the most appropriate buyer / tenant not only for our client but also for the Agraharam, so as to maintain the fabric and cultural identity of the Agraharam. Our efforts are aimed at providing complete satisfaction to all the stakeholders. Never again, householders in an Agraharam will be required to consider a stranger who may not fit the age-old norms and practices that is the very heart and soul of an Agraharam. We have no commercial considerations as this service is free of any brokerage or commission, except for a nominal fixed upfront cost towards meeting the bouquet of services rendered by our team.

How do we meet the cost of running and maintaining the website as well as undertaking the activity on a massive scale? Since our efforts are aimed at creating a social impact, the funds for our end to end operations are paid for by like minded individuals, through crowdfunding. We wish to encourage maximum participation and hence we have fixed a cap of Rs 1,001 as the upper limit that an individual can contribute to support our activities under the umbrella of our website www.AgraharamHomes.com

How can an interested individual help the cause of www.AgraharamHomes.com? There are various ways an individual can be of help. The easiest way is to send us one's contribution, to help us meet our fixed and recurring costs, We are fully aware that our initiative is massive in its scale and that it cannot be handled by an individual or group of individuals. Hence, we always seek pro bono help from senior volunteers to handle various functions such as conducting interviews of the prospective buyers and tenants as well as to undertake due diligence and background checks. From volunteers who are professional CAs and Lawyers, we may request help for computation of capital gains tax on a case to case basis & their informed suggestions on ways to save taxes legally. From the lawyers, we need help to draft lease deeds, sale deeds, carrying out search reports, issue of non encumbrance certificates, formation of Trusts, Will writing etc etc.

The other ways one can help us is to spread the word amongst their friends and relatives about our activities and the help rendered by www.AgraharamHomes.com . If a volunteer comes to know of any householder in an Agraharam planning to sell or rent out ancestral home, it is our sincere request to such a volunteer to provide us with the details of the householder, Our team will get in touch and explain to owners about our services that they may choose to avail. We will offer our various assistance through our website, in locating the right buyer / tenant respectively. Similarly, if any volunteer knows of anyone amongst their friends and relatives, interested in buying a home or to rent one in an Agraharam, we will be glad to find a most appropriate property for the interested individual, If such a purchase is made for investment and / or to ensure that the home in the Agraharam does not get into the hands of inappropriate individual/s, we can help the purchaser of the property, to find an appropriate tenant or suggest other ways of using the home optimally, such as starting a Gurukulam, Village cottage / micro business, home school, music / veda classes, Homestay, Retirement homes, for conducting Aparakriya rituals or for any other related service proposition as per the instructions of the owners of the premises,

Hare Krishna !

Please reach out to our member: Jay Iyer for any queries.
 
Objective: To help Brahmins to reclaim on their own, the centuries old Agraharams across the country, with the assistance of technology.

Mode: Through this dedicated website, to offer a virtual marketplace to enable the owners of property in the Agraharam to find an appropriate Brahmin family as a buyer or as a tenant.

Website: www.AgraharamHomes.com gets enhanced from funds received through crowdfunding from like minded individuals. It has tabs such as : About Us, Images of Agraharam, Meaning, concept and lifestyle of brahmins at the Agraharam through the ages, Scope of our activity, Why it is necessary to preserve Agraharam, Steps that we have proposed through our site, Details about our buy, sell and rent services catering exclusively to Agraharam residents, Ways in which volunteers could help, Images of the properties at Agraharam that are either on sale or available for rent and details of the neighborhood, List of Agraharams in South India, Forms, Help desk numbers etc.

Funding: We aim to raise funds purely through a crowdfunding campaign to mobilize nominal contributions from a minimum of Rs 101 to a maximum of Rs 1,001 from like minded individuals. We will close the campaign on reaching the first tranche of Rs 50,000 (Indian Fifty thousand only). Additional tranches will be opened as we need them. Our initiative is 'not for profit' and purely to fulfil our responsibility towards the Society and Agraharams in particular.

Accounts: Books of accounts showing source and application of funds will be maintained and the same will be audited.

Disclosure: All contributions will be voluntary and accepted only through bank transfers. Names of the donors will be displayed on our website, if authorized by the respective donor.

Our credentials: We are a group of professional retired bankers from the brahmin community. We hail from Agraharam in the southernmost tip of India. We have held responsible senior positions right upto CEO levels at various banks in India and abroad. We do not represent any social institution nor any NGO. Neither we have not donned the role of crusaders. We are a group of citizens who are saddened by the gradual erosion of Agraharam lifestyle and feel that the essence of Agraharam living should be retained by our generation for the sake of posterity and future generations.

Why this initiative? In the past few years, the principles behind the formation of the century old Agraharam way of living have steadily got diluted and threatened leading up to an eventual break up of Agraharams, for various monetary compulsions. Brahmins desirous of selling or renting their homes have been compelled to consider the first buyer or tenant for their property, although such a buyer or tenant may not jell or be in the best interest of the Agraharam. As conscious individuals, our team could not stand and stare at the unfortunate situations. Based on our years of professional experience, we decided to lend meaningful support to arrest the situation from further decay. www.AgraharamHomes.com is the first step of our team towards fulfilling this noble objective. For our team, no task is small or big. We believe every challenge can be resolved by breaking the large problem into small logical steps, each seamlessly linked to the other to successfully navigate any long journey. We love and respect all the communities. However, we feel it is our responsibility to retain and nourish our identity and way of life.

What is our aim? The humble aim of our team is to make it a collective initiative of 'like minded and concerned' individuals, to help Agraharams to regain their past glory in its pure and pristine form. Through our website www.AgraharamHomes.com, the owners of homes in the Agraharam will now be able to get much wider access to our database of prospective brahmins within India and abroad, interested in buying or renting a home in the Agraharam at appropriate terms, to retain and maintain the culture and tradition of Agraharams in tact.

Our goal - to lobby support and to ultimately get UNESCO Heritage site tag for Agraharams in India

  • What is an Agraharam? Agraharam is a name given to the dwelling place of Brahmins in India. This term is unique especially in South India. The term Agrahara means Primary Garland formed by a row of houses on either side, around a temple. Agraharam signifies the social status accorded to Brahmins because of their character.
Origin of Agraharam: Agraharams were created through grant of land and royal income from it, for religious purposes and for vedic scholars in the Brahmin community to maintain the temples in that land or a pilgrimage site and to sustain their families. Agraharams were built and maintained by the Chola and Pallava dynasties since they followed and propagated Vedic studies.
Agraharam is typically a village that comprises well lined streets, wherein, brahmins inhabit and lead a way of life that has been passed on through generations. The village is self-sufficient and caters to most of the needs of its residents. The women and men wear traditional attire and visit the river early in the morning for a bath and before the first rays of sun grace the village, they return home to carry out their daily chores. Women draw intricate Kolam outside their homes. The men engage in conducting spiritual activities as ordained in Shastras. They wear the holy thread and have the holy ash smeared over their forehead, neck, chest and arms. They perform vedic duties everyday, take care of cows either at their homes or at the numerous GoShallas and lead their life strictly as per the routine prescribed in the scriptures. The bright and eager-faced children go to the village school to gain knowledge about various subjects, including that of Vedas and Upanishads. Each family, more or less, leads a vedic life as per the tenets of shastras. The principle guiding the Agraharam was that of simple living, idealistic thinking and to be of help to the society.

Besides the houses on either side of the road, Agraharams have the temple with the deity of the village god at the centre, The formation of the houses resemble a garland around the temple. As per traditional town-planning, an agraharam consists of two rows of houses running north–south on either side of a road at one end of which would be a Shiva temple and at the other end, a Vishnu temple.

Why is the fabric of Agraharam in various stages of decay and disarray ? With Brahmins taking up professions in urban areas and some migrating abroad, Agraharams are vanishing fast. Many of the traditional houses are giving way to concrete structures and ugly commercial buildings. Initially the Agraharam was maintained fully using royal patronage but later the Agraharam became a self-sustaining economy. Due to economic compulsions, some of the residents in the Agraharams have been selling their homes to those who do not conform with the tenets and way of life that symbolises Agraharam.
All the essentials, right from cow milk, milked during the pre-dawn hours, fresh vegetables, fruits, flowers etc would be delivered at the doorstep with unfailing regularity. From every household the sound of hymns and religious texts uttered with clarity and exact pronunciation could be heard. The strong aroma of coffee would fill the air and at the later part of the day, the smell of traditional cuisine such as sambar and rasam would fill the air. In the evening, one can notice men and women visiting in ones and twos, the many temples in the villages. The smell of jasmine tucked in the braid of women would further enhance divinity in the atmosphere. Daily life in the agraharam follows century old ways of living and patterns without deviation.

However, in the past few years, aberrations and a marked difference in the type of residents inhabiting the village has been noticed. The residents of some of the agraharam now consist of unfamiliar faces and those that follow a way of life and practices that are distinctly different from those of the traditional residents. The neighbourhood, the streets of the agraharam, marketplace, kind of shops and even the riverside had a distinctly different composition. To the old timers staying in the agraharam, the change that is sweeping right in front of their eyes is indeed very painful and yet they seem to be helpless. Over the years, the frequent visitors to the Agraharam, have noticed an unmistakable, yet a slow and steady metamorphosis of the Agraharam. It disturbs the multitude of sweet memories that the residents of the Agraharam hold in their heart. Effective steps need to be taken by the collective efforts of like minded and concerned individuals to arrest the glaring anomaly that is setting in at some of the Agraharams.

When we started enquiring about the unmistakable change occuring in the village, the old timers in the village, threw their hands up with an air of despair. Although they knew that their Agraharam was undergoing irreversible change, yet, they could not stop their friends and neighbours from either selling their ancestral homes to outsiders who do not subscribe to the norms of the agraharam but on the mere strength of their deep pockets, were able to hold sway over the the sellers of homes in the Agraharam. Commerce was undeniably sidelining century old culture and tradition. When we dug deeper, we learnt that it was not only in one agraharam, but similar agraharams across South India has been facing a silent and relentless onslaught and in the process, the character of such agraharams was getting lost permanently, though the very same Agraharams had managed to successfully survive and ward off the successive foreign rule in our country for many years.

Can the situation be stopped or at least minimised ? The birth of www.AgraharamHomes.com was a felt need, to address the change sweeping across many Agraharams in South India. The website is work in progress and is getting developed holistically, purely through crowdfunding from like minded individuals who care enough to retain the life and soul of Agraharams or whatever is left of it. It is our belief that instead of worrying at the steady disintegration of Agraharam, we need to regroup as individuals and take remedial actions, without waiting for any outside agencies or government of the day to assist.

www.AgraharamHomes.com will be a virtual market place and will play the role of an enabler. It will facilitate the sellers / owners of homes in an Agraharam to find suitable buyers for their homes. For those who wish to rent their ancestral homes in the Agraharam, the site will enable them to find the right tenant.

In www.AgraharamHomes.Com we will upload details as well as images of homes available for sale or lease, in any Agraharam. The site will have appropriate disclaimers and adhere to data privacy norms to maintain confidentiality of all the parties. It will undertake extensive due diligence on the parties interested in either purchasing or taking on rent a home in an Agraharam. Once the buyers / tenants are shortlisted, our Relationship Manager will share their details in confidence, with the seller / landlord.

So, why are we undertaking this exercise and what is in it for us? All through the process, our objective is focussed on getting the most appropriate buyer / tenant not only for our client but also for the Agraharam, so as to maintain the fabric and cultural identity of the Agraharam. Our efforts are aimed at providing complete satisfaction to all the stakeholders. Never again, householders in an Agraharam will be required to consider a stranger who may not fit the age-old norms and practices that is the very heart and soul of an Agraharam. We have no commercial considerations as this service is free of any brokerage or commission, except for a nominal fixed upfront cost towards meeting the bouquet of services rendered by our team.

How do we meet the cost of running and maintaining the website as well as undertaking the activity on a massive scale? Since our efforts are aimed at creating a social impact, the funds for our end to end operations are paid for by like minded individuals, through crowdfunding. We wish to encourage maximum participation and hence we have fixed a cap of Rs 1,001 as the upper limit that an individual can contribute to support our activities under the umbrella of our website www.AgraharamHomes.com

How can an interested individual help the cause of www.AgraharamHomes.com? There are various ways an individual can be of help. The easiest way is to send us one's contribution, to help us meet our fixed and recurring costs, We are fully aware that our initiative is massive in its scale and that it cannot be handled by an individual or group of individuals. Hence, we always seek pro bono help from senior volunteers to handle various functions such as conducting interviews of the prospective buyers and tenants as well as to undertake due diligence and background checks. From volunteers who are professional CAs and Lawyers, we may request help for computation of capital gains tax on a case to case basis & their informed suggestions on ways to save taxes legally. From the lawyers, we need help to draft lease deeds, sale deeds, carrying out search reports, issue of non encumbrance certificates, formation of Trusts, Will writing etc etc.

The other ways one can help us is to spread the word amongst their friends and relatives about our activities and the help rendered by www.AgraharamHomes.com . If a volunteer comes to know of any householder in an Agraharam planning to sell or rent out ancestral home, it is our sincere request to such a volunteer to provide us with the details of the householder, Our team will get in touch and explain to owners about our services that they may choose to avail. We will offer our various assistance through our website, in locating the right buyer / tenant respectively. Similarly, if any volunteer knows of anyone amongst their friends and relatives, interested in buying a home or to rent one in an Agraharam, we will be glad to find a most appropriate property for the interested individual, If such a purchase is made for investment and / or to ensure that the home in the Agraharam does not get into the hands of inappropriate individual/s, we can help the purchaser of the property, to find an appropriate tenant or suggest other ways of using the home optimally, such as starting a Gurukulam, Village cottage / micro business, home school, music / veda classes, Homestay, Retirement homes, for conducting Aparakriya rituals or for any other related service proposition as per the instructions of the owners of the premises,

Hare Krishna !

Please reach out to our member: Jay Iyer for any queries.
Brilliant initiative Praveen! Congratulations. I would like to take this inititiative further. I was at the recent Brahmin Global Meet in Palakkad (Sept 2023) which itself was a great initiative and very well organised. So many ideas have come out of that meet but I understand there is a long way to go. Let me know how we move forward. Thanks. Dr Ramanathan
 
Objective: To help Brahmins to reclaim on their own, the centuries old Agraharams across the country, with the assistance of technology.

Mode: Through this dedicated website, to offer a virtual marketplace to enable the owners of property in the Agraharam to find an appropriate Brahmin family as a buyer or as a tenant.

Website: www.AgraharamHomes.com gets enhanced from funds received through crowdfunding from like minded individuals. It has tabs such as : About Us, Images of Agraharam, Meaning, concept and lifestyle of brahmins at the Agraharam through the ages, Scope of our activity, Why it is necessary to preserve Agraharam, Steps that we have proposed through our site, Details about our buy, sell and rent services catering exclusively to Agraharam residents, Ways in which volunteers could help, Images of the properties at Agraharam that are either on sale or available for rent and details of the neighborhood, List of Agraharams in South India, Forms, Help desk numbers etc.

Funding: We aim to raise funds purely through a crowdfunding campaign to mobilize nominal contributions from a minimum of Rs 101 to a maximum of Rs 1,001 from like minded individuals. We will close the campaign on reaching the first tranche of Rs 50,000 (Indian Fifty thousand only). Additional tranches will be opened as we need them. Our initiative is 'not for profit' and purely to fulfil our responsibility towards the Society and Agraharams in particular.

Accounts: Books of accounts showing source and application of funds will be maintained and the same will be audited.

Disclosure: All contributions will be voluntary and accepted only through bank transfers. Names of the donors will be displayed on our website, if authorized by the respective donor.

Our credentials: We are a group of professional retired bankers from the brahmin community. We hail from Agraharam in the southernmost tip of India. We have held responsible senior positions right upto CEO levels at various banks in India and abroad. We do not represent any social institution nor any NGO. Neither we have not donned the role of crusaders. We are a group of citizens who are saddened by the gradual erosion of Agraharam lifestyle and feel that the essence of Agraharam living should be retained by our generation for the sake of posterity and future generations.

Why this initiative? In the past few years, the principles behind the formation of the century old Agraharam way of living have steadily got diluted and threatened leading up to an eventual break up of Agraharams, for various monetary compulsions. Brahmins desirous of selling or renting their homes have been compelled to consider the first buyer or tenant for their property, although such a buyer or tenant may not jell or be in the best interest of the Agraharam. As conscious individuals, our team could not stand and stare at the unfortunate situations. Based on our years of professional experience, we decided to lend meaningful support to arrest the situation from further decay. www.AgraharamHomes.com is the first step of our team towards fulfilling this noble objective. For our team, no task is small or big. We believe every challenge can be resolved by breaking the large problem into small logical steps, each seamlessly linked to the other to successfully navigate any long journey. We love and respect all the communities. However, we feel it is our responsibility to retain and nourish our identity and way of life.

What is our aim? The humble aim of our team is to make it a collective initiative of 'like minded and concerned' individuals, to help Agraharams to regain their past glory in its pure and pristine form. Through our website www.AgraharamHomes.com, the owners of homes in the Agraharam will now be able to get much wider access to our database of prospective brahmins within India and abroad, interested in buying or renting a home in the Agraharam at appropriate terms, to retain and maintain the culture and tradition of Agraharams in tact.

Our goal - to lobby support and to ultimately get UNESCO Heritage site tag for Agraharams in India

  • What is an Agraharam? Agraharam is a name given to the dwelling place of Brahmins in India. This term is unique especially in South India. The term Agrahara means Primary Garland formed by a row of houses on either side, around a temple. Agraharam signifies the social status accorded to Brahmins because of their character.
Origin of Agraharam: Agraharams were created through grant of land and royal income from it, for religious purposes and for vedic scholars in the Brahmin community to maintain the temples in that land or a pilgrimage site and to sustain their families. Agraharams were built and maintained by the Chola and Pallava dynasties since they followed and propagated Vedic studies.
Agraharam is typically a village that comprises well lined streets, wherein, brahmins inhabit and lead a way of life that has been passed on through generations. The village is self-sufficient and caters to most of the needs of its residents. The women and men wear traditional attire and visit the river early in the morning for a bath and before the first rays of sun grace the village, they return home to carry out their daily chores. Women draw intricate Kolam outside their homes. The men engage in conducting spiritual activities as ordained in Shastras. They wear the holy thread and have the holy ash smeared over their forehead, neck, chest and arms. They perform vedic duties everyday, take care of cows either at their homes or at the numerous GoShallas and lead their life strictly as per the routine prescribed in the scriptures. The bright and eager-faced children go to the village school to gain knowledge about various subjects, including that of Vedas and Upanishads. Each family, more or less, leads a vedic life as per the tenets of shastras. The principle guiding the Agraharam was that of simple living, idealistic thinking and to be of help to the society.

Besides the houses on either side of the road, Agraharams have the temple with the deity of the village god at the centre, The formation of the houses resemble a garland around the temple. As per traditional town-planning, an agraharam consists of two rows of houses running north–south on either side of a road at one end of which would be a Shiva temple and at the other end, a Vishnu temple.

Why is the fabric of Agraharam in various stages of decay and disarray ? With Brahmins taking up professions in urban areas and some migrating abroad, Agraharams are vanishing fast. Many of the traditional houses are giving way to concrete structures and ugly commercial buildings. Initially the Agraharam was maintained fully using royal patronage but later the Agraharam became a self-sustaining economy. Due to economic compulsions, some of the residents in the Agraharams have been selling their homes to those who do not conform with the tenets and way of life that symbolises Agraharam.
All the essentials, right from cow milk, milked during the pre-dawn hours, fresh vegetables, fruits, flowers etc would be delivered at the doorstep with unfailing regularity. From every household the sound of hymns and religious texts uttered with clarity and exact pronunciation could be heard. The strong aroma of coffee would fill the air and at the later part of the day, the smell of traditional cuisine such as sambar and rasam would fill the air. In the evening, one can notice men and women visiting in ones and twos, the many temples in the villages. The smell of jasmine tucked in the braid of women would further enhance divinity in the atmosphere. Daily life in the agraharam follows century old ways of living and patterns without deviation.

However, in the past few years, aberrations and a marked difference in the type of residents inhabiting the village has been noticed. The residents of some of the agraharam now consist of unfamiliar faces and those that follow a way of life and practices that are distinctly different from those of the traditional residents. The neighbourhood, the streets of the agraharam, marketplace, kind of shops and even the riverside had a distinctly different composition. To the old timers staying in the agraharam, the change that is sweeping right in front of their eyes is indeed very painful and yet they seem to be helpless. Over the years, the frequent visitors to the Agraharam, have noticed an unmistakable, yet a slow and steady metamorphosis of the Agraharam. It disturbs the multitude of sweet memories that the residents of the Agraharam hold in their heart. Effective steps need to be taken by the collective efforts of like minded and concerned individuals to arrest the glaring anomaly that is setting in at some of the Agraharams.

When we started enquiring about the unmistakable change occuring in the village, the old timers in the village, threw their hands up with an air of despair. Although they knew that their Agraharam was undergoing irreversible change, yet, they could not stop their friends and neighbours from either selling their ancestral homes to outsiders who do not subscribe to the norms of the agraharam but on the mere strength of their deep pockets, were able to hold sway over the the sellers of homes in the Agraharam. Commerce was undeniably sidelining century old culture and tradition. When we dug deeper, we learnt that it was not only in one agraharam, but similar agraharams across South India has been facing a silent and relentless onslaught and in the process, the character of such agraharams was getting lost permanently, though the very same Agraharams had managed to successfully survive and ward off the successive foreign rule in our country for many years.

Can the situation be stopped or at least minimised ? The birth of www.AgraharamHomes.com was a felt need, to address the change sweeping across many Agraharams in South India. The website is work in progress and is getting developed holistically, purely through crowdfunding from like minded individuals who care enough to retain the life and soul of Agraharams or whatever is left of it. It is our belief that instead of worrying at the steady disintegration of Agraharam, we need to regroup as individuals and take remedial actions, without waiting for any outside agencies or government of the day to assist.

www.AgraharamHomes.com will be a virtual market place and will play the role of an enabler. It will facilitate the sellers / owners of homes in an Agraharam to find suitable buyers for their homes. For those who wish to rent their ancestral homes in the Agraharam, the site will enable them to find the right tenant.

In www.AgraharamHomes.Com we will upload details as well as images of homes available for sale or lease, in any Agraharam. The site will have appropriate disclaimers and adhere to data privacy norms to maintain confidentiality of all the parties. It will undertake extensive due diligence on the parties interested in either purchasing or taking on rent a home in an Agraharam. Once the buyers / tenants are shortlisted, our Relationship Manager will share their details in confidence, with the seller / landlord.

So, why are we undertaking this exercise and what is in it for us? All through the process, our objective is focussed on getting the most appropriate buyer / tenant not only for our client but also for the Agraharam, so as to maintain the fabric and cultural identity of the Agraharam. Our efforts are aimed at providing complete satisfaction to all the stakeholders. Never again, householders in an Agraharam will be required to consider a stranger who may not fit the age-old norms and practices that is the very heart and soul of an Agraharam. We have no commercial considerations as this service is free of any brokerage or commission, except for a nominal fixed upfront cost towards meeting the bouquet of services rendered by our team.

How do we meet the cost of running and maintaining the website as well as undertaking the activity on a massive scale? Since our efforts are aimed at creating a social impact, the funds for our end to end operations are paid for by like minded individuals, through crowdfunding. We wish to encourage maximum participation and hence we have fixed a cap of Rs 1,001 as the upper limit that an individual can contribute to support our activities under the umbrella of our website www.AgraharamHomes.com

How can an interested individual help the cause of www.AgraharamHomes.com? There are various ways an individual can be of help. The easiest way is to send us one's contribution, to help us meet our fixed and recurring costs, We are fully aware that our initiative is massive in its scale and that it cannot be handled by an individual or group of individuals. Hence, we always seek pro bono help from senior volunteers to handle various functions such as conducting interviews of the prospective buyers and tenants as well as to undertake due diligence and background checks. From volunteers who are professional CAs and Lawyers, we may request help for computation of capital gains tax on a case to case basis & their informed suggestions on ways to save taxes legally. From the lawyers, we need help to draft lease deeds, sale deeds, carrying out search reports, issue of non encumbrance certificates, formation of Trusts, Will writing etc etc.

The other ways one can help us is to spread the word amongst their friends and relatives about our activities and the help rendered by www.AgraharamHomes.com . If a volunteer comes to know of any householder in an Agraharam planning to sell or rent out ancestral home, it is our sincere request to such a volunteer to provide us with the details of the householder, Our team will get in touch and explain to owners about our services that they may choose to avail. We will offer our various assistance through our website, in locating the right buyer / tenant respectively. Similarly, if any volunteer knows of anyone amongst their friends and relatives, interested in buying a home or to rent one in an Agraharam, we will be glad to find a most appropriate property for the interested individual, If such a purchase is made for investment and / or to ensure that the home in the Agraharam does not get into the hands of inappropriate individual/s, we can help the purchaser of the property, to find an appropriate tenant or suggest other ways of using the home optimally, such as starting a Gurukulam, Village cottage / micro business, home school, music / veda classes, Homestay, Retirement homes, for conducting Aparakriya rituals or for any other related service proposition as per the instructions of the owners of the premises,

Hare Krishna !

Please reach out to our member: Jay Iyer for any queries.
Btw, I did write to AgraharamHomes.com few weeks ago but hasn't yet received any response. Is it active?
 

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