Habitats of Commoners in India
First Online: June 5, 2001
Page Last Updated: June 16,2008

Common Dwellings of India: An Introduction

"...The ordinary homes and temples in India ought to be documented too" -- Vishal Mehra, a patron wrote, " not just the great and famous ones." Indeed, it is in these ordinary abodes that India lives. I have put together this exhibit of the most common of the buildings found in India from my fathers' photographs, and I certainly believe that they reflect the pulse of India -- beauty, poverty, diversity, and devotion of her people.

You will notice the styles of the habitats vary with geography, available skill set of the builders, and the availability of raw materials. 

Welcome to the abodes of ordinary men and of ordinary Gods.

-Vikas Kamat

Table of Contents

• Adivasi Habitat, Madhya Pradesh
• Barsur Temple
• A Building at Shantiniketan Campus
• Designs Around a Temple Window
• A Door in a Cancone Temple
• Early Morning Art Outside a Tamilian Home
• Entrance to Temple, Goa
• Entrance to Mangeshi Temple
• The Gonda Habitat with Country Tiles
• Habitat of a Basket Weaver
• Habitat of the Kadu-Kuruba Tribals
• Home Improvement
• Home of a Basket Weaver
• How India Gets her Water
• The Kalash (towering pot) of a Buddhist temple
• The Khetapai Temple of Bhaktal
• Krishna Temple, Udupi
• Marble roofs and arches of Rajasthan
• The Minaret of a Mosque
• Old Fashioned Indian House
• Painted Temple of Malagi
• Paintings on a Tribal Hut, Bhojpur
• A Siddi Habitat
• Sirsi Marikamba Temple
• Stone Benches at the Temple Entrance
• Temple Inside Temple Inside Temple
• A Temple of Madhya Pradesh
• Thatched Huts
• "Thou Art Everywhere, But I Worship Thee Here"
• Toda temple with a curved roof
• Two Roofs
• A Typical Hut, Rajasthan

See Also:

• The Palaces of India  -- pictures of palaces from all over India

• Temples of India -- some the great and famous temples of India at Kamat's Potpourri

• The Great Monuments of India -- photographic exhibition of some of the grand monuments