ABSTRACT
Dharwar, a quiet little city in the north-west of Mysore state, India, is situated in a transitional belt where the Sahyadrian hilly landscape in the west merges with the undulating plain of black soil in the east. Social life in Dharwar is based on the caste system. Within a few miles west of Dharwar, forests dominate the landscape. Kalyan, a suburb on the northern fringe of Dharwar, is sandwiched between two neighbourhoods in the east and west. The family in Kalyan occupies a traditional type of single-storied house without any front or backyard, the main entrance almost touching the road and the sidewalls always serving as common walls to adjacent houses. In most of the houses there is on the right side a raised platform normally used for storage of grains, and on another side the shed for livestock and agricultural implements.
