Moran Vernacular Architecture

The Moran is one important and ancient tribe of the state who had their own kingdom known as Matak Kingdom. They are primarily scattered in the districts of Dibrugarh and Tinsukia. The Moran village show a particular built environment and the homesteads are constructed amidst the vegetation. Traditionally, the gable roofed and earth-fast houses are constructed with natural materials. The houses are constructed either in east-west direction with the main entrance to the east or in north-south direction with the main entrance to the north or south. They traditionally construct houses with three, five, or seven purlins according to the social status of the person (Chetia:2011). Thus, the simplest tini- maralia (constructed with three purlins) houses are meant for the general people while 5 or 7 purlin houses are constructed according to social or religious hierarchy.

The Moran houses are gable front and the main door is conventionally remains little left of the ridge point. The door opening of the Moran house is kept high enough so that a person can pass through it without bending the head. Different explanations are current among them regarding this practice. Thus, it is said that they never bow their head to anyone except God, and so the door is made sufficiently high. Another account tells that the Moran people remains so alert and ever-ready for any combat that even while taking food, they used to sit in squatting position putting the sword below the feet and in the event of any emergency, they move out of the house holding the sword erected in guarding position.

The Morans construct two houses for residential purpose namely Chora-ghar or Chowa-ghar and Xoa aru Randhani-ghar that contains the bed-rooms and the kitchen. Apart from those, Moran households possess the architecture of barn and byre along with subsidiary structures of loom shed or animal cages (Dahotia:2015).

1) Chora-ghar / Chowa-ghar:

This south facing house is constructed over an earthen plinth of few feet height, in north-south direction. The house possesses five purlins, placed over the five rows of breadth wise posts. The purlins are-two pachanar marali over the two rows of corner pachan khuta, two kumar marali over the two rows of kumar khuta and the mudhar marali over the ridge bearing posts. The members of king post, queen post, and strut are added over the beam to support the purlins. Then the roof truss is constructed through traditional technique. The roof is then covered usually with palm frond. The walls are constructed using bamboo split (choch / thosh) and left un-plastered. The choch are fitted vertically and inserted below into the slot of a bamboo capping (berota), laid horizontally on the plinth, and fastens them to the posts at different height using bamboo splinter.

The front side of the house towards gable end is called aaowla while the eaves of other three sides are called koitali. The aaowla is ordinary used for sitting as well as to store different items. The main door remains in this aaowla, slightly towards left side of the gable wall. In the opposite wall, another door called pet- duar is attached that faces the main door that connects another house called xoa-ghar. Inside the chora-ghar, a hearth is established to the right half of the room. Guests and family members take seat around the hearth where a fixed seat called bar-dhara remains for the head of the family. Above this hearth, a loft called bar- chang is constructed to keep different vegetable produce while another three-tiered hanging shelf called dhoa- chang is constructed above the hearth. The different tiers of the dhoa- chang are used to season meat / fish or to preserve varieties of seeds. Near the rear wall of the house, the husking peddle (dheki) is established, above which another hanging shelf called dheki- chang is constructed. Different bamboo-made articles are kept in this shelf. In the left side of the house, a bamboo is fastened to the side row posts. This bamboo is called dhan-maradung that is used as a support while thrashing the paddy sheaf with feet. Another short piece of bamboo is fastened to keep choppers, which is known as dar- phuk.

2) Xoa-ghar:

The next house, constructed on the plinth of equal height and attached to the Chora-ghar, is known as Xoa-ghar. The length of this house depends on the size of the family and number of rooms required. The house contains at least three bed-rooms and the kitchen. This house is constructed little reduced in breadth and height than the Chora-ghar and at a distance of few feet from this. This house is constructed using three purlins only using same technique. The lesser height and breadth of the house enables the insertion of the roof below the previous one. There keep a corridor called dighal- pati of few feet breadth to the left side of the house. This corridor leads to different partitioned rooms and to the kitchen. The rooms are allotted in accordance to the seniority of the couple and the main couple of the family occupies the first room. The unmarried boys and girls are allotted with separate rooms, to the rear side of the house. The rooms possess the bamboo-made bed and a bamboo shelf (bapa-chang) to keep the caskets or other items.

The last room of the house is used as the kitchen, which is internally divided into three parts. Thus, the kitchen is partitioned into charu- (s)hali / ekha-(s)hali, moji(s)hali and pani-chunga-(s)hali. The ekha- shali is the main cooking area of the kitchen which is separated with a wall of certain height. In the gable wall of this part, a door is attached. The room contains the hearth and necessary utensils are kept inside this room. The ekha- shali is regarded as an auspicious area of the house and different taboos are prevalent in regard to this area. The moji- shali is dining area, which is required to mope with mud after every eating. Another hearth is established in the left corner of the kitchen where tea is prepared in bamboo pipes. So, this hearth is called pani-chungashali. There construct another hanging shelf above the pani-chunga- shali to keep items such as tea-leaf, jaggery, and pastry as well as to dry fire wood.

3) Granary:

The granary is constructed through the general technique of constructing the form. It is constructed over huge wooden logs known as lotikai and the posts of the structure rest on these lotikai rather than on soil. The platform (gandhoi), which rests on beams called mondung, is woven with bamboo planks using the technique called dharimuch and daubed with clay. However, the bamboo walls of the structure remain un-plastered.

4) Cowshed:

This structure is constructed to the southern side of the Chora-ghar. It is an earth-fast structure. The earthen floor of the structure is made convex which is called kacha-pithia that resembles the back of the tortoise. This is a simple structure, constructed with only three purlins and the structure does not have any enclosing wall.