Karaikudi in Tamil Nadu is having a moment, and much of it traces back to one woman. Mrs Meenakshi Meyyappan, the 92-year-old doyenne of heritage hotel The Bangala, has spent five editions of the Chettinad Heritage and Cultural Festival personally inviting speakers, planning menus and running the show from a makeshift control room in her own hotel. What began as an effort to fill the off-season has turned into a year-round revival of one of India's most atmospheric regions.
Chettinad is a cluster of 75 villages across roughly 600 square miles of arid country, built on the fortunes of the Nattukottai Chettiar merchant community. Having traded across South-East Asia, they poured profits into mansions of 40,000 square feet and more between the 18th and mid-20th centuries — around 15,000 at their peak. Many now stand empty, and as demolition crept in over the past decade, the fear was that Chettinad was effectively shrinking. The festival has flipped the narrative: tourists, wedding parties and Instagrammers now fill Athangudi Palace, and hoteliers are taking notice. The Park Hotels restored a 150-year-old mansion into The Vaadhyar's House restaurant in 2018 and followed up in 2024 with The Lotus Palace, a 230-year-old building with emerald chandeliers and a scarlet lounge. Taj Hotels is reportedly scouting for a mansion of its own.
Cultural institutions are multiplying too. Jewellery designer Meenu Subbiah opened Pettagam, India's first private museum of Chettinad jewellery, and 80-year-old revivalist Visalakshi Ramaswamy launched The Museum of Chettinad in her family's 125-year-old Kanadukathan home, full of Burmese lacquerware, Ravi Varma prints and silk saris with contrasting borders. Craft knowledge is being rescued as well: the once nearly extinct Athangudi tile now supports around 300 factories, and architects like Benny Kuriakose have tracked down elderly masons to recover techniques such as egg-washed lime plastering — skills he argues could make modern buildings more climate-resilient.
The festival programme itself is a draw: Shashi Tharoor in conversation with historian Manu Pillai, textile displays from the Registry of Sarees with Ashdeen Lilaowala, temple walks led by Pradeep Chakravarthy, and tours of the Zamindar House in Devakottai and Chettinad Palace. And the food at The Bangala — fried quail and lacy appams — is reason enough to go.
For travellers, Chettinad now offers what few Indian destinations can: palatial architecture you can actually sleep in, living craft traditions, and food with a serious reputation — all without crowds. Base yourself at The Bangala in Karaikudi, carve out time for Athangudi's tile workshops and the mansions of Kanadukathan, and go soon, before everyone else finds out.
