Bathrakali, swarthy-skinned and with a wild mop, has been behind walls all her life. She spent much of her life behind the closed doors of a fortress and now, long after that citadel crumbled, she lives behind walls that she built around herself.

Bathrakali is the last survivor of a race of women, who belong to a small sub-caste called Vellala Pillaimar (upper-caste land owners), who have remained imprisoned within the high mud walls of the fortress for centuries.

Even after 1972, when the stranglehold of that repressive tradition loosened, the 70-year-old chose to stay back within the fortress—in her house with yellow walls and dank interiors.

Srivaikundam is just like any other hamlet in Tamil Nadu’s rural backyard with its rows of concrete houses, potholed roads and stray cattle. But this village, about 25 km south of Tirunelveli, is steeped in history and intrigue—tales of kings, a murder and an imposing fort, the Pillaimar Kotai.

What now remains of the fort are two massive wooden doors held by small portions of the centuries-old fort walls and five families who stay within—one, that of Bathrakali. Over the years, the Pillaimar women stepped out but the custom left a deep imprint on Bathrakali’s mind. “Now I am forced to leave my house to visit my daughters. I have no option. They are married to men outside the kottai (fort),” she said.

Married to her uncle, who died a year ago, Bathrakali shows little interest in the world outside. “We never knew what was happening outside. Woman tutors came to teach us and they used herbal cures for illnesses. There was no need for us to step out,” she said. The 20-odd families within the fort lived and died on 16 acres of land, without electricity and with no running water. No man from outside, including government officials and authorities, were allowed inside the fort and the women were forbidden from stepping out. The women could only marry the men inside. If they ran short of grooms, they wedded the married men, or remained spinsters.

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