Nayaka - Settlements

A Nayaka community averages about five clusters of huts. The clusters, which we will call "hamlets", here are located in the jungle, near water sources, at a distance of a few miles from each other. Occasionally there are additional small hamlets at the fringes of the jungle near local Indian villages. The huts vary considerably. The most substantial have a framework constructed of wood on a mud platform. The walls are made of strips of split bamboo resting on a low mud base, leaving a small doorway. The hut has a roof of grass thatch. Occasionally several huts are joined to each other in a row. The more casual huts are simply lean-tos resting on a rock, or on another hut, with no walls. There is a little-used fireplace in each living space, and a few articles lie casually on the ground. Except during the rainy period, people mostly sleep, cook, and eat outside their huts.