From Hearth to Heritage: Culinary Knowledge Systems of the Agraharam (19th –21st Century)- A Case Study of Kalpathi Village, Kerala

Author(s)	Dr. KAMAKSHY V
Country	India
Abstract	This article examines agraharam culinary practices as dynamic Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) through a historical and ethnographic case study of Kalpathi village in Palakkad district, Kerala, from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century. By foregrounding food as a site of knowledge production, this study shifts attention from text-centric approaches to embodied, practice-based epistemologies embedded in everyday life. . These culinary traditions are analysed as integrated systems linking ritual discipline, Ayurvedic dietary logic, ecological awareness, and social regulation. Particular attention is paid to women’s roles as custodians of culinary knowledge and to contemporary reconfigurations shaped by heritage discourse, market circulation, and digital mediation.The article argues that agraharam kitchens function as living archives of indigenous knowledge rather than residual cultural forms, contributing to global debates in food studies, indigenous knowledge, and everyday heritage
Keywords	Indigenous Knowledge Systems, agraharam, culinary heritage, Kalpathi, food history, role of Mami, Kerala
Field	Sociology > Archaeology / History
Published In	Volume 8, Issue 3, May-June 2026
Published On	2026-06-13
DOI	https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2026.v08i03.81315

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International Journal For Multidisciplinary Research