Roofing in India

India has one of the longest continuous roofing histories in the world and one of the most varied. Its roofs range from the rock-cut imitations of timber vaults in Buddhist cave halls, through the curved roofs of Bengal, the domes and pavilions of Mughal and Rajput palaces and the long tiled roofs of Kerala, to the slate roofs of the Himalaya. Today most new building uses flat reinforced concrete slabs, but tiles, metal and fibre-cement sheets and thatch still cover tens of millions of homes.

Climate and hazards

The south-west monsoon brings months of intense rain to the west coast, the north-east and the Himalayan foothills, so roofs there are typically steep with deep eaves. The north-west and the Deccan interior are hot and dry for much of the year, which favours flat roofs that can be used as terraces. The east coast is exposed to tropical cyclones from the Bay of Bengal. The Himalayan states face heavy snow and are seismically very active, and large parts of northern and north-eastern India are at high earthquake risk, which makes the weight and anchorage of roofs a structural issue.

Roofing history

Indus civilisation. The cities of the Indus or Harappan civilisation, in present-day Pakistan and north-west India, flourished from about 2500 to 1900 BCE in their mature phase. Houses were one or two storeys high, built of standardised fired or mud brick, sometimes with timber superstructures, around courtyards. The surviving ruins do not preserve the roofs themselves, so their construction: published information is limited.

Early tiles and timber. Excavations at Alamgirpur in Uttar Pradesh have produced early evidence of fired roof tiles on the subcontinent. Most early public roofs were of timber and thatch, which have perished; they are known from the rock-cut Buddhist halls of western India, whose carvers copied them in stone (see chaitya vault). The Barabar Caves of the 3rd century BCE are the earliest comparable spaces. At Bhaja (2nd century BCE) and Karla (about 50-70 CE) real wooden ribs line barrel vaults cut in rock; the Great Chaitya at Karla is about 45 m (148 ft) long and up to 14 m (46 ft) high.

Temples and palaces. Hindu and Jain temples were roofed in stone, and some were finished in metal: the Nataraja Temple at Chidambaram in Tamil Nadu is roofed with 21,600 gold-covered tiles. In Bengal, where stone was scarce, temple builders from about the 16th century reproduced the curved thatched roofs of village huts in brick and terracotta (see bangla roof). The Mughals built great masonry domes, most famously the Taj Mahal at Agra (built 1632-1648), a white-marble tomb over brick-in-lime masonry with a large, double-storeyed domed central chamber. Rajput and Mughal builders crowned roofs with chhatris, small domed pavilions on pillars, and from about 1635 adopted the Bengal curved roof in palaces such as the Khas Mahal at Agra.

Colonial and industrial era. On 4 December 1865 the Basel Mission began industrial production of clay roof tiles that hook into one another in Mangalore, the first such factory in India. The Mangalore tile spread along the west coast, replacing much palm thatch in Kerala during the British period, and was exported widely; about 75 factories existed by 1994, though many have since closed because of clay shortages. Corrugated galvanised iron and, in the 20th century, asbestos-cement sheet spread across the country for houses, sheds and factories. In Kashmir, for example, imported corrugated iron replaced the old earth-and-birch-bark roofs.

Modern. Reinforced cement concrete (RCC) slab roofs now dominate urban construction and are increasingly common in villages, where flat roofs also allow a later upper storey.

Traditional and vernacular roofs

• Kerala sloping roof: steep timber roofs with deep eaves, originally thatched with palm leaf and later tiled. The nalukettu house groups four halls around an open courtyard (nadumuttam), with sloping tiled roofs shedding the monsoon; carpentry followed the Thachu Shastra, the traditional science of carpentry.
• Bangla roof: the curved do-chala, char-chala and at-chala roofs of Bengal, first in thatch and later in brick.
• Kath-kuni: the timber-and-stone houses and temples of Himachal Pradesh, roofed with heavy local slate or wooden shingles over a deodar frame.
• Burza pash: the Kashmiri roof of planks, birch bark and about 75-100 mm (3-4 in) of earth, which flowered with tulips and irises in spring.
• Flat earth and lime roofs: in the hot, dry north-west, flat roofs and roof terraces used for sleeping and drying.
• Thatch and bamboo: grass, palm-leaf and bamboo roofs across rural India, especially in the east and north-east.

Roofing today

The 2011 Census recorded the predominant roof material of 246.7 million households (excluding institutional households):

Roof material	Share of households
Concrete	29.0%
Tiles (hand-made 14.5%, machine-made 9.3%)	23.8%
G.I., metal, asbestos sheets	15.9%
Grass, thatch, bamboo, wood, mud etc.	15.0%
Stone or slate	8.6%
Burnt brick	6.6%
Plastic or polythene	0.6%
Other	0.4%

Concrete slabs are typically waterproofed with lime terracing, brickbat coba, bituminous membranes or liquid coatings. Coated steel sheets and fibre-cement sheets are standard on industrial and farm buildings.

Codes, standards and regulation

The National Building Code of India, published by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), is the model national code; its 2016 edition (NBC 2016) superseded the 2005 edition. It is adopted through state and municipal building bye-laws. Roof-related provisions are spread across its parts on fire safety, materials, structural design (including wind loads), plumbing and sustainability, and BIS publishes Indian Standards for roofing products such as coated steel sheet, tiles and fibre-cement sheets.

Industry

India has a large roofing manufacturing sector, including the remaining Mangalore-pattern tile works on the west coast, fibre-cement producers such as Everest Industries (founded in 1934 as Asbestos Cement Ltd) and coated-steel makers such as Tata Steel Colors.

Notable roofs

• Great Chaitya, Karla (about 50-70 CE): rock-cut barrel vault with ancient wooden ribs.
• Nataraja Temple, Chidambaram: roof of 21,600 gold-covered tiles.
• Taj Mahal, Agra (1632-1648): the best-known Mughal dome, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• Chhatris of Rajasthan, such as the cenotaphs of Bada Bagh in Jaisalmer and Gaitore in Jaipur.
• Madin Saheb shrine, Srinagar: one of the last flowering birch-bark roofs.

Local roofing terms

• chala (Bengali): roof slope; do-chala, two-sloped roof
• chhatri (Hindi): "umbrella", a domed pavilion
• nadumuttam (Malayalam): open central courtyard of a nalukettu
• burza (Kashmiri): birch bark
• kath-kuni (Himachali): timber-and-stone construction

Sources and gaps

As of 2026 the 2011 Census is the most recent with published data on roof materials. Direct evidence for how Indus-period roofs were built: published information is limited.